Techniques I use to create a great user experience for shell scripts

Post by f1shy » Sat, Sep 14, 2024, 1:24 PM UTC

nicbou wrote: post #136

Arch-TK wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Addendum after reading the script: * #!/bin/bash instead of #!/usr/bin/env bash * [ instead of [[ * -z instead of actually checking how many arguments you got passed and trusting the end user if they do something weird like pass an empty string to your program * echo instead of printf * `print_and_execute sdk install java $DEFAULT_JAVA_VERSION` who asked you to install things? * `grep -h "^sdk use" "./prepare_$fork.s…

As a bash casual, these suggestions are a reminder of why I avoid using bash when I can. That's a whole armory of footguns right there.

Post by f1shy » Sat, Sep 14, 2024, 1:29 PM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #60

haileys wrote: post #18

Don't output ANSI colour codes directly - your output could redirect to a file, or perhaps the user simply prefers no colour. Use tput instead, and add a little snippet like this to the top of your script: command -v tput &>/dev/null && [ -t 1 ] && [ -z "${NO_COLOR:-}" ] || tput() { true; } This checks that the tput command exists (using the bash 'command' builtin rather than which(1) - surprisingly, which can't alwa…

There should just be a command for this. Like echo with a color flag that does something if you’re in a tty.

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sat, Sep 14, 2024, 1:32 PM UTC

zimpenfish wrote: post #142

Arch-TK wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Addendum after reading the script: * #!/bin/bash instead of #!/usr/bin/env bash * [ instead of [[ * -z instead of actually checking how many arguments you got passed and trusting the end user if they do something weird like pass an empty string to your program * echo instead of printf * `print_and_execute sdk install java $DEFAULT_JAVA_VERSION` who asked you to install things? * `grep -h "^sdk use" "./prepare_$fork.s…

> * #!/bin/bash instead of #!/usr/bin/env bash Except that'll pick up an old (2006!) (unsupported, I'm guessing) version of bash (3.2.57) on my macbook rather than the useful version (5.2.26) installed by homebrew. > -z instead of actually checking how many arguments you got I think that's fine here, though? It's specifically wanting the first argument to be a non-empty string to be interpolated into a filename later…

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sat, Sep 14, 2024, 1:36 PM UTC

f1shy wrote: post #151

Arch-TK wrote: post #123

This reads like what I've named as "consultantware" which is a type of software developed by security consultants who are eager to write helpful utilities but have no idea about the standards for how command line software behaves on Linux. It ticks so many boxes: * Printing non-output information to stdout (usage information is not normal program output, use stderr instead) * Using copious amounts of colours everywhe…

The colors topic is really bad! I like to use blue backkround in my terminal, which breaks the output of that stupid scripts. DO NOT USE COLORS.

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sat, Sep 14, 2024, 1:42 PM UTC

f1shy wrote: post #152

nicbou wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a bash casual, these suggestions are a reminder of why I avoid using bash when I can. That's a whole armory of footguns right there.

What is better?