[terminal] How do I update zsh to the latest version?

I recently switched to zsh on my Terminal.app on my OS X machine successfully. The version number of zsh is 4.3.11.

This question is related to terminal zsh

The answer is


If you have Homebrew installed, you can do this.

# check the zsh info
brew info zsh

# install zsh
brew install --without-etcdir zsh

# add shell path
sudo vim /etc/shells

# add the following line into the very end of the file(/etc/shells)
/usr/local/bin/zsh

# change default shell
chsh -s /usr/local/bin/zsh

Hope it helps, thanks.


As far as I'm aware, you've got three options to install zsh on Mac OS X:

  • Pre-built binary. The only one I know of is the one that ships with OS X; this is probably what you're running now.
  • Use a package system (Ports, Homebrew).
  • Install from source. Last time I did this it wasn't too difficult (./configure, make, make install).

I just switched the main shell to zsh. It suppresses the warnings and it isn't too complicated.


If you're using oh-my-zsh

Type omz update in the terminal

Note: upgrade_oh_my_zsh is deprecated


If you're not using Homebrew, this is what I just did on MAC OS X Lion (10.7.5):

  1. Get the latest version of the ZSH sourcecode

  2. Untar the download into its own directory then install: ./configure && make && make test && sudo make install

  3. This installs the the zsh binary at /usr/local/bin/zsh.

  4. You can now use the shell by loading up a new terminal and executing the binary directly, but you'll want to make it your default shell...

  5. To make it your default shell you must first edit /etc/shells and add the new path. Then you can either run chsh -s /usr/local/bin/zsh or go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > right click your user > Advanced Options... > and then change "Login shell".

  6. Load up a terminal and check you're now in the correct version with echo $ZSH_VERSION. (I wasn't at first, and it took me a while to figure out I'd configured iTerm to use a specific shell instead of the system default).