Linux Bash Scripting

Linux Bash Scripting

Target: GNU Bash 4.4+ on Linux. No macOS/BSD workarounds, no Windows paths, no POSIX-only restrictions.

Script Foundation

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -Eeuo pipefail
shopt -s inherit_errexit

readonly SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd -- "$(dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd -P)"

trap 'printf "Error at %s:%d\n" "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" "$LINENO" >&2' ERR
trap 'rm -rf -- "${_tmpdir:-}"' EXIT

• -E propagates ERR traps into functions
• inherit_errexit propagates errexit into $() command substitutions
• Always create temp dirs under the EXIT trap: _tmpdir=$(mktemp -d)

Core Rules

• Quote every expansion: "$var", "$(cmd)", "${array[@]}"
• local for function variables, local -r for function constants, readonly for script constants
• printf '%s\n' over echo — predictable behavior, no flag interpretation
• [[ ]] for conditionals; (( )) for arithmetic; $() over backticks
• End options with --: rm -rf -- "$path", grep -- "$pattern" "$file"
• Require env vars: : "${VAR:?must be set}"
• Never eval user input; build commands as arrays: cmd=("grep" "--" "$pat" "$f"); "${cmd[@]}"
• Separate local from assignment to preserve exit codes: local val; val=$(cmd)

Safe Iteration

# NUL-delimited file processing
while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do
    process "$f"
done &2; exit 1 ;;
        *)            break ;;
    esac
done

Production Patterns

Dependency check:

require() { command -v "$1" &>/dev/null || { printf 'Missing: %s\n' "$1" >&2; exit 1; }; }
require jq; require curl

Dry-run wrapper:

run() { if [[ "${DRY_RUN:-}" == "1" ]]; then printf '[dry] %s\n' "$*" >&2; else "$@"; fi; }
run cp "$src" "$dst"

Atomic file write — write to temp, rename into place:

atomic_write() { local tmp; tmp=$(mktemp); cat >"$tmp"; mv -- "$tmp" "$1"; }
generate_config | atomic_write /etc/app/config.yml

Retry with backoff:

retry() { local n=0 max=5 delay=1; until "$@"; do ((++n>=max)) && return 1; sleep $delay; ((delay*=2)); done; }
retry curl -fsSL "$url"

Script locking — prevent concurrent runs:

exec 9>/var/lock/"${0##*/}".lock
flock -n 9 || { printf 'Already running\n' >&2; exit 1; }

Idempotent operations — safe to rerun:

ensure_dir()  { [[ -d "$1" ]] || mkdir -p -- "$1"; }
ensure_link() { [[ -L "$2" ]] || ln -s -- "$1" "$2"; }

Logging

log() { printf '[%s] [%s] %s\n' "$(date -Iseconds)" "$1" "${*:2}" >&2; }
info()  { log INFO "$@"; }
warn()  { log WARN "$@"; }
error() { log ERROR "$@"; }
die()   { error "$@"; exit 1; }

Anti-Patterns

| Bad | Fix | |-----|-----| | for f in $(ls) | for f in *; do or find -print0 \| while read | | local x=$(cmd) | local x; x=$(cmd) — preserves exit code | | echo "$data" | printf '%s\n' "$data" | | cat file \| grep | grep pat file | | kill -9 $pid first | kill "$pid" first, -9 as last resort | | cd dir; cmd | cd dir || exit 1 or subshell (cd dir && cmd) |

Performance

• Parameter expansion over externals: ${path%/*} not dirname, ${path##*/} not basename, ${var//old/new} not sed
• (( )) over expr; [[ =~ ]] over echo | grep
• Cache results: val=$(cmd) once, reuse $val
• xargs -0 -P "$(nproc)" for parallel work
• declare -A map for lookups instead of repeated grep

Bash 4.4+ / 5.x

• ${var@Q} shell-quoted, ${var@U} uppercase, ${var@L} lowercase
• declare -n ref=varname nameref for indirect access
• wait -n wait for any background job
• $EPOCHSECONDS, $EPOCHREALTIME — timestamps without forking date

Linux-Specific

• /proc/self/status, /proc/cpuinfo, /proc/meminfo for system info
• systemctl for services; journalctl -u svc for logs
• GNU coreutils: sed -i (no ''), grep -P (PCRE), readlink -f
• timeout 30s cmd to prevent hangs
• flock for script locking (see above)
• Package install: apt-get install -y / dnf install -y / pacman -S --noconfirm

ShellCheck

Run shellcheck --enable=all script.sh. Key rules:

• SC2155: Separate declaration from assignment
• SC2086: Double-quote variables
• SC2046: Quote command substitutions
• SC2164: cd dir || exit
• SC2327/SC2328: Use ${BASH_REMATCH[n]} not $n for regex captures

Pre-commit: shellcheck *.sh && shfmt -i 2 -ci -d *.sh

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: iliaal
• Source: iliaal/whetstone
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.