Bash Style Guide

This style guide is meant to outline how to write bash scripts with a style that makes them safe and predictable. This guide is based on this wiki, specifically this page:

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide/Practices

If anything is not mentioned explicitly in this guide, it defaults to matching whatever is outlined in the wiki.

Aesthetics

Tabs / Spaces

2 spaces.

Semicolons

You don't use semicolons on the command line (I hope), don't use them in scripts.

# wrong
name='dave';
echo "hello $name";

#right
name='dave'
echo "hello $name"

Functions

Don't use the function keyword. All variables created in a function should be made local.

# wrong
function foo {
    i=foo # this is now global, wrong
}

# right
foo() {
    local i=foo # this is local, preferred
}

Block Statements

then should be on the same line as if, and do should be on the same line as while.

# wrong
if true
then
    ...
fi

# also wrong, though admittedly looks kinda cool
true && {
    ...
}

# right
if true; then
    ...
fi

Spacing

No more than 2 consecutive newline characters (ie. no more than 1 blank line in a row)

Comments

No explicit style guide for comments. Don't change someones comments for aesthetic reasons unless you are rewriting or updating them.

Bashisms

This style guide is for bash. This means when given the choice, always prefer bash builtins or keywords instead of external commands or sh(1) syntax.

test(1)

Use [[ ... ]] for conditional testing, not [ .. ] or test ...

# wrong
test -d /etc

# also wrong
[ -d /etc ]

# correct
[[ -d /etc ]]

See http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/031 for more information

Sequences

Use bash builtins for generating sequences

n=10

# wrong
for f in $(seq 1 5); do
    ...
done

# wrong
for f in $(seq 1 "$n"); do
    ...
done

# right
for f in {1..5}; do
    ...
done

# right
for ((i = 0; i < n; i++)); do
    ...
done

Command Substitution

Use $(...) for command substitution.

foo=`date`  # wrong
foo=$(date) # right

Math / Integer Manipulation

Use ((...)) and $((...)).

a=5
b=4

# wrong
if [[ $a -gt $b ]]; then
    ...
fi

# right
if ((a > b)); then
    ...
fi

Do not use the let command.

Parameter Expansion

Always prefer parameter expansion over external commands like echo, sed, awk, etc.

name='bahamas10'

# wrong
prog=$(basename "$0")
nonumbers=$(echo "$name" | sed -e 's/[0-9]//g')

# right
prog=${0##*/}
nonumbers=${name//[0-9]/}

Listing Files

Do not parse ls(1), instead use bash builtin functions to loop files

# very wrong, potentially unsafe
for f in $(ls); do
    ...
done

# right
for f in *; do
    ...
done

Determining path of the executable

Simply stated, you can't know this for sure. If you are trying to find out the full path of the executing program, you should rethink your software design.

See http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/028 for more information

Arrays and lists

Use bash arrays instead of a string separated by spaces (or newlines, tabs, etc.) whenever possible

# wrong
modules='json httpserver jshint'
for module in $modules; do
    npm install -g "$module"
done

# right
modules=(json httpserver jshint)
for module in "${modules[@]}"; do
    npm install -g "$module"
done

read builtin

Use the bash read builtin whenever possible to avoid forking external commands

Example

fqdn='computer1.daveeddy.com'

IFS=. read hostname domain tld <<< "$fqdn"
echo "$hostname is in $domain.$tld"
# => "computer1 is in daveeddy.com"

External Commands

GNU userland tools

The whole world doesn't run on GNU or on Linux; avoid GNU specific options when forking external commands like awk, sed, grep, etc. to be as portable as possible.

When writing bash and using all the powerful tools and builtins bash gives you, you'll find it very rare that you need to fork external commands.

UUOC

Don't use cat(1) when you don't need it. If programs support reading from stdin, pass the data in using bash redirection.

# wrong
cat file | grep foo

# right
grep foo < file

# also right
grep foo file

Prefer using a command line tools builtin method of reading a file instead of passing in stdin. This is where we make the inference that, if a program says it can read a file passed by name, it's probably more performant to do so.

Style

Quoting

Use double quotes for strings that require variable expansion or command substitution interpolation, and single quotes for all others.

# right
foo='Hello World'
bar="You are $USER"

# wrong
foo="hello world"

# possibly wrong, depending on intent
bar='You are $USER'

All variables that will undergo word-splitting must be quoted (1). If no splitting will happen, the variable may remain unquoted.

foo='hello world'

if [[ -n $foo ]]; then   # no quotes needed - [[ ... ]] won't word-split variable expansions
    echo "$foo"          # quotes needed
fi

bar=$foo  # no quotes needed - variable assignment doesn't word-split

1. The only exception to this rule is if the code or bash controls the variable for the duration of its lifetime. For instance, basher has code like:

printf_date_supported=false
if printf '%()T' &>/dev/null; then
    printf_date_supported=true
fi

if $printf_date_supported; then
    ...
fi

Even though $printf_date_supported undergoes word-splitting in the if statement in that example, quotes are not used because the contents of that variable are controlled explicitly and not taken from a user or command.

Also, variables like $$, $?, $#, etc. don't required quotes because they will never contain spaces, tabs, or newlines.

When in doubt however, quote all expansions.

Variable Declaration

Avoid uppercase variable names unless there's a good reason to use them. Don't use let or readonly to create variables. declare should only be used for associative arrays. local should always be used in functions.

# wrong
declare -i foo=5
let foo++
readonly bar='something'
FOOBAR=baz

# right
i=5
((i++))
bar='something'
foobar=baz

shebang

Bash is not always located at /bin/bash, so always use this line:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

Error Checking

cd, for example, doesn't always work. Make sure to check for any possible errors for cd (or commands like it) and exit or break if they are present.

# wrong
cd /some/path # this could fail
rm file       # if cd fails where am I? what am I deleting?

# right
cd /some/path || exit
rm file

set -e

Don't set errexit. Like in C, sometimes you want an error, or you expect something to fail, and that doesn't necessarily mean you want the program to exit.

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/105

eval

Never.

---

None of the things listed in the link below will be accepted in this code base.

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashPitfalls

This reference also has examples on how to fix these issues.

License

MIT License