I’ve been struggling with a rather complex shell script, and it’s becoming apparent that Bash might not be the best choice for this particular task. While I usually gravitate towards statically typed languages like Go or Rust, I’ve noticed that many people recommend alternative languages such as Lua or Python for scripting tasks.

I’m curious to know your opinions and experiences with scripting languages for larger or more intricate shell scripts. Have you ever encountered a situation where Bash just didn’t cut it, and if so, which scripting languages did you turn to for a more effective solution? Are there any specific languages you found particularly suitable for debugging, testing, or handling complex logic in your shell scripts?

  • philm@programming.dev
    3·
    1 year ago

    Yeah the strict type-system of Rust is great at finding issues.

    I think when understanding, that bash is basically only programs with parameters ([ is a program that takes all kinds of parameters and as last parameter ]) then bash is quite ok for stuff that doesn’t need a lot of algorithms, i.e. passing the in and out from one program to another. But as soon as there’s basic logic, You’ll want to use a fully-fledged programming language.

    Also the maintainability aspect: You can just start using fancy stuff you never want to use in bash and it can slowly grow into a library or application or something like that.

    Btw. I have started a syntax-sugar library/crate that creates typing information for all kinds of programs via the builder-type-state-pattern, so that you don’t always have to look up man etc. and that it should be more convenient to execute programs (not open sourced yet, and low priority for me as I’m working on various other exciting projects currently)