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Use a linter. Pass all scripts through https://www.shellcheck.net/ https://www.shellcheck.net/ or use `shellcheck` on the commandline. Learn the things it tel

Use a linter. Pass all scripts through https://www.shellcheck.net/ https://www.shellcheck.net/ or use `shellcheck` on the commandline. Learn the things it tells you and implement them in future scripts.

npteljes 4y ago
Thanks for the pointer! For some reason, I never looked for such a tool for shell scripts - and indeed, it pointed out a myriad of things in my code, most of which seem useful.
grumblehound 4y ago
Shellcheck is a godsend. I'm not a linuxy guy but have had to write some bash at work for gitlab pipelines... I was getting very frustrated with it until I found shellcheck and it instantly resolved a lot of annoyances I had. I added it into the pipeline for the repo that holds the CI scripts (using the koalaman/shellcheck-alpine docker image) and installed the VSCode extension locally. Super simple.
ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
That should be the zeroth rule of all shell/bash scripting. I'm almost tempted to put in a self-linting line in scripts so that they won't run unless shellcheck passes completely. (It would be unnecessary to lint the same script every time it's called though, so it's not a serious suggestion). There should be an option in bash to auto-lint scripts the first time that they're called, but I don't know how the OS should keep track of when the script was last changed and last linted.
- generalizations 4y ago
  It would be simpler to modify shellcheck to add flags to shellcheck that limit the kinds of warnings it produces, and then just run it on every invocation of the script. That keeps everything local and deterministic.
  - ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
    I usually fix the scripts so that shellcheck is completely happy. The occasional times that there's a warning that you know is not relevant, you can add a comment just above the offending line e.g. # shellcheck disable=SC2154 (That's for not warning about using a variable that hasn't been defined)

npteljes 4y ago

Thanks for the pointer! For some reason, I never looked for such a tool for shell scripts - and indeed, it pointed out a myriad of things in my code, most of which seem useful.

grumblehound 4y ago

Shellcheck is a godsend. I'm not a linuxy guy but have had to write some bash at work for gitlab pipelines... I was getting very frustrated with it until I found shellcheck and it instantly resolved a lot of annoyances I had. I added it into the pipeline for the repo that holds the CI scripts (using the koalaman/shellcheck-alpine docker image) and installed the VSCode extension locally. Super simple.

ndsipa_pomu 4y ago

That should be the zeroth rule of all shell/bash scripting. I'm almost tempted to put in a self-linting line in scripts so that they won't run unless shellcheck passes completely. (It would be unnecessary to lint the same script every time it's called though, so it's not a serious suggestion). There should be an option in bash to auto-lint scripts the first time that they're called, but I don't know how the OS should keep track of when the script was last changed and last linted.

generalizations 4y ago
It would be simpler to modify shellcheck to add flags to shellcheck that limit the kinds of warnings it produces, and then just run it on every invocation of the script. That keeps everything local and deterministic.
- ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
  I usually fix the scripts so that shellcheck is completely happy. The occasional times that there's a warning that you know is not relevant, you can add a comment just above the offending line e.g. # shellcheck disable=SC2154 (That's for not warning about using a variable that hasn't been defined)