Biapy Bashlings

A bash functions library.

Bashlings are bash functions to be sourced in bash scripts. These functions are a hold-out from earlier times, and should be a last resort. Prefer using tools provided by a real bash framework.

Functions

• available-fd : Find first unused file descriptor (fd) (for bash < 4.1 (e.g. macOS)).
• cecho : Colored Echo: output text in color.
• check-binary : Check for the presence of a binary in $PATH.
• download : Download content from a URL and write it to /dev/stdout.
• in-list : Test if a value is in a list.
• is-array : Test if a variable is an array.
• is-url : Test if a string is a HTTP, HTTPS, FTP or FILE URL.
• join-array : Join an array contents with a string separator.
• process-options : Alternative getopt for functions.
• realpath-check : Resolve the real absolute path and check for its existence.
• realpath : Resolve the real absolute path.
• repeat-string : Repeat a string N times.

Usage

Import Biapy Bashlings in the project:

git submodule add \
  'https://github.com/biapy/biapy-bashlings.git' \
  'lib/biapy-bashlings'

See Cloning for including submodules when cloning a repository.

Make use of a Biapy Bashlings' function (e.g. in-list) in a script stored in src folder:

source "${BASH_SOURCE[0]%/*}/../lib/biapy-bashlings/src/in-list.bash"

in-list "${value}" "${example_list[@]}" && echo "Found."

Script skeleton

skeleton.bash is a skeleton of bash script implementation. It includes option processing, --quiet and --verbose implementation examples, and basic error messages.

Bash resources

• Bash Reference Manual: The reference for Bash syntax and functionalities.
• Bash FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Bash. This is a very good reference full of examples and recommendations.
• ShellCheck: ShellCheck is a shell script analysis tool. It provides recommendations on good coding practices and alert of shell scripts' pitfalls.
• shfmt: shfmt is a code formatter for shell scripts.
• Bash-it: Bash-it is a Oh My Zsh inspired collection of Bash commands and scripts for Bash 3.2+.

Awesome lists for bash:

• Awesome Bash.
• Awesome Shell.

Package managers for publishing bash scripts:

• bpkg.
• basher.
• Homebrew.

Other interesting resources:

• Shell Script Best Practices @ The Sharat's.
• Expanding Bash arrays safely with set -u.
• Writing a TUI in BASH @ GitHub.
• Shell Auto Completion in Linux @ Baeldung Linux.

Third party libraries

Biapy Bashlings uses:

• shdoc for generating markdown documentation from code.
• ShellCheck for checking code quality.
• shfmt for formatting scripts and bats unit tests.
• Bats-core: Bash Automated Testing System for unit testing, with its helper libraries:
  • bats-support.
  • bats-assert.
  • bats-file.

Biapy Bashlings uses these GitHub actions for Continuous Integration:

• Super-Linter for lint checks.
• Setup BATS testing framework unit-tests, with its helper action:
  • Setup Bats libs.

Contributing

Git

Cloning

This library uses the bats library for unit-testing.

Clone the repository with the additional libraries:

git clone --recurse-submodules 'git@github.com:biapy/biapy-downloader'

Updating submodules

Update the submodules with:

git submodule update --remote

Utilities

The Makefile provides these rules:

• help : Display a short help message about the rules available in the Makefile.
• clean : Delete generated documentation in doc/ and remove functions list from README.md.
• format : format files using shfmt on *.bash files in src/ and *.bats files in test/.
• check : check files for errors using shellcheck on *.bash files in src/.
• test : run unit tests.
• doc : Generate documentation in doc/ using shdoc.
• readme : Update function list in README.md.
• all : All of the above.

Thanks

• Un modèle pour démarrer un script shell @ Deblan Blog (fr).