Fish 4.8 is now available as the latest version of this user-friendly command-line shell for Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like systems.
A key change is the adoption of Fluent for translating messages in Fish’s Rust source code, replacing GNU gettext. The project now uses tooling based on the fluent-ftl-tools library, providing translators with an updated workflow.
Fish 4.8 also introduces a compatibility change for completions: the complete builtin’s --command and --path options no longer unescape their arguments, which may affect users or projects that rely on custom fish completions.
Moreover, the release resolves an issue in which history search could lose commands re-run in concurrent sessions. Abbreviation completion is also improved, enabling abbreviations with --position=anywhere to be completed in argument as well as command positions.
Additional interactive fixes include improved path component movement with Ctrl-W, which now skips escaped characters. Plus, completion of short option groups now handles --condition correctly, and Ctrl-C properly cancels certain functions.
Scripting improvements include support for the -L and -P options in the cd command, matching other shells and allowing users to control symbolic link resolution. Additionally, cd with a relative path now retries using the actual current directory if $PWD has changed.
Nested brace expansions now consistently strip unquoted leading and trailing spaces from entries. Additionally, the bind command also displays the files where bindings were defined, making it easier to trace key bindings.
Finally, this release addresses several regressions from earlier versions, including vi mode issues with c, W, redundant smartcase completions when pressing Tab repeatedly, and a bug where pressing Escape during command execution could insert unwanted text into the command line.
For additional details, see the changelog.
Fish 4.8 is now available on the project’s GitHub release page. Standalone Linux binaries are provided for supported CPU architectures, and macOS packages will be available separately.
