The review highlights the lack of a comprehensive standard library in bash, the most popular Linux shell, and lists various libraries and frameworks that can make complex bash scripting easier. The author expresses hope that the list will be useful and plans to review these libraries in more depth in future posts.
The review discusses the absence of a full-featured standard library in bash, which is a significant drawback for those writing complex scripts. To address this, the author has compiled a list of various bash/shell-scripting libraries and collections that can simplify the scripting process. These libraries include frameworks, unit-test tools, logging frameworks, and more. The author hopes that this list will be beneficial to others and plans to delve deeper into these libraries in future posts, comparing them to equivalent functionality in Python. The goal is to enhance the shell scripting experience by leveraging standard UNIX tools.
Quick quotes
One of the most powerful aspects of popular high-level languages is the existence of a comprehensive standard library. Unfortunately, the most popular Linux shell, bash, lacks a full-featured library bundled with it.
It was a real pain to come up with this whole list, so hopefully it’s useful to some of you.
My goal is not to have functionality re-implemented in shell script to replace basic tools like head/tail, but instead to discover or create (if necessary) a library using the full suite of standard UNIX tools to provide a fun and convenient experience for shell scripters.