Get Oh My Zsh Aliases without zsh

24 Aug 2025 |

I’m using Omarchy which has a curated bash shell but I miss oh my zsh git, elixir, and kubectl aliases. Here’s a quick guide to porting those aliases directly into your existing Bash environment.

Step 1: Clone the Oh My Zsh Repo

First, we’ll need the plugin files. Clone the repository to a folder in your home directory:

git clone https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh.git ~/.oh-my-zsh

Step 2: Safely retrieve aliases

We’ll add a small script at the bottom of our ~/.bashrc to load the plugins we want.

# ===================================================================
# Dynamically Load Aliases from Oh My Zsh Plugin Files
# ===================================================================

# 1. Set the path to your Oh My Zsh installation
export OMZ_DIR="$HOME/.oh-my-zsh"

# 2. List the plugins you want to load aliases from
OMZ_PLUGINS=(
  git
  kubectl
  elixir
  bundler
  # Add other plugins here, e.g., docker, systemd, etc.
)

# 3. Loop through the plugins and load ONLY the simple alias definitions
for plugin in "${OMZ_PLUGINS[@]}"; do
  if [ -f "$OMZ_DIR/plugins/$plugin/$plugin.plugin.zsh" ]; then
    # Use grep to find lines starting with 'alias ', then use eval
    # to execute them as if they were written here.
    # This is safe for simple aliases like alias a='b'.
    eval "$(grep "^alias " "$OMZ_DIR/plugins/$plugin/$plugin.plugin.zsh")"
  fi
done

# Unset variables to keep the environment clean
unset OMZ_DIR
unset OMZ_PLUGINS

Step 3: Reload your shell

To make the aliases available in your current session reload your .bashrc file.

source ~/.bashrc

Your new aliases are now ready to use in your bash shell. Enjoy!

Update Aug. 26 2025

If you also want completions for your git and kubectl aliases this code makes it work although it’s more complicated.

Step 1

Install bash-completition

yay -S bash-completition

source /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion

# ===================================================================
# Dynamically Load Aliases from Oh My Zsh Plugin Files
# ===================================================================

# 1. Set the path to your Oh My Zsh installation
export OMZ_DIR="$HOME/.oh-my-zsh"

# 2. List the plugins you want to "borrow" aliases from
OMZ_PLUGINS=(
  git
  kubectl
  elixir
  bundler
)

# --- Completion helpers ----------------------------------------------------
__omz_load_kubectl_completion() {
  [[ -n ${__OMZ_KC_LOADED:-} ]] && return 0
  command -v kubectl &>/dev/null || return 0
  declare -F __start_kubectl >/dev/null || source <(kubectl completion bash)
  __OMZ_KC_LOADED=1
}

__omz_load_git_completion() {
  [[ -n ${__OMZ_GIT_LOADED:-} ]] && return 0
  command -v git &>/dev/null || return 0
  if ! (declare -F __git_wrap__git_main >/dev/null || declare -F _git >/dev/null || declare -F __git_main >/dev/null); then
    for f in /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/git /etc/bash_completion.d/git; do [[ -r $f ]] && . "$f" && break; done
  fi
  __OMZ_GIT_LOADED=1
}

# Unified completion function for git & kubectl aliases.
# 1. Look up full expansion
# 2. Inject its tokens in front of user input so native completion sees real command
# 3. Delegate to command-specific completion
__omz_alias_complete() {
  local name=${COMP_WORDS[0]}
  local expansion=${__omz_alias_map[$name]}
  [[ -n $expansion ]] || return 0

  # Fast path: single-word alias (rare for our target, but cheap to check)
  if [[ $expansion != *' '* ]]; then
    case $expansion in
      kubectl) __omz_load_kubectl_completion; __start_kubectl 2>/dev/null; return ;;
      git)     __omz_load_git_completion;   ;; # Git's main completion entry already handles base command
    esac
  fi

  # shellcheck disable=SC2206
  local base_tokens=( $expansion )          # expansion split safely by IFS=space semantics
  local oc=$COMP_CWORD                      # original cursor index
  local rest=( "${COMP_WORDS[@]:1}" )      # original args after alias word
  COMP_WORDS=( "${base_tokens[@]}" "${rest[@]}" )
  COMP_CWORD=$(( oc + ${#base_tokens[@]} - 1 ))

  case ${base_tokens[0]} in
    kubectl)
      __omz_load_kubectl_completion
      __start_kubectl 2>/dev/null
      ;;
    git)
      __omz_load_git_completion
      # Provide variables some git completion variants expect
      words=( "${COMP_WORDS[@]}" ); cword=$COMP_CWORD; cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}; prev=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]}
      if declare -F __git_wrap__git_main >/dev/null; then __git_wrap__git_main; \
      elif declare -F _git >/dev/null; then _git; \
      elif declare -F __git_main >/dev/null; then __git_main; fi
      # Fallback: suggest remotes immediately after push if none yet
      if [[ ${COMP_WORDS[1]} == push && $COMP_CWORD -eq 2 && ${#COMPREPLY[@]} -eq 0 ]]; then
        mapfile -t COMPREPLY < <(git remote 2>/dev/null | sed 's/$/ /')
      fi
      ;;
  esac
}

###############################################
# Parse Oh My Zsh plugin alias definitions
# (idempotent; only captures kubectl/git aliases for completion)
###############################################
if [[ -z ${__OMZ_ALIAS_MAPS_LOADED:-} ]]; then
  declare -gA __omz_alias_map
  for plugin in "${OMZ_PLUGINS[@]}"; do
    plugin_file="$OMZ_DIR/plugins/$plugin/$plugin.plugin.zsh"
    [[ -f $plugin_file ]] || continue
    while IFS= read -r line; do
      [[ $line == alias\ * ]] || continue
      name=${line#alias }      # strip leading 'alias '
      name=${name%%=*}
      value=${line#*=}
      q=${value:0:1}
      if [[ $q == "'" || $q == '"' ]]; then
        value=${value:1:${#value}-2}       # remove surrounding quotes
      fi
      printf -v quoted '%q' "$value"
      eval "alias $name=$quoted" 2>/dev/null || true
      case $value in
        kubectl*|git*) __omz_alias_map[$name]="$value" ;;
      esac
    done < "$plugin_file"
  done
  unset name value q quoted
  __OMZ_ALIAS_MAPS_LOADED=1
fi

# Attach unified completion (re-runnable)
for a in "${!__omz_alias_map[@]}"; do complete -F __omz_alias_complete "$a" 2>/dev/null || true; done