Agent skill

standards-shell

This skill provides Shell/Bash coding standards and is automatically loaded for shell projects. It includes defensive scripting patterns, best practices, and recommended tooling.

Stars 163
Forks 31

Install this agent skill to your Project

npx add-skill https://github.com/majiayu000/claude-skill-registry/tree/main/skills/data/standards-shell

SKILL.md

Shell/Bash Coding Standards

Core Principles

  1. Simplicity: Simple, understandable scripts
  2. Readability: Readability over cleverness
  3. Maintainability: Scripts that are easy to maintain
  4. Testability: Scripts that are easy to test
  5. DRY: Don't Repeat Yourself - but don't overdo it
  6. Defensiveness: Fail early, fail loudly

General Rules

  • Defensive Header: Always use set -euo pipefail
  • Quote Variables: Always quote variables "$var"
  • Descriptive Names: Meaningful names for variables and functions
  • Minimal Changes: Only change relevant code parts
  • No Over-Engineering: No unnecessary complexity
  • ShellCheck Clean: All scripts must pass ShellCheck

Naming Conventions

Element Convention Example
Variables snake_case user_name, file_count
Functions snake_case get_user_by_id, validate_input
Constants UPPER_SNAKE_CASE MAX_RETRIES, DEFAULT_TIMEOUT
Files kebab-case or snake_case deploy-app.sh, run_tests.sh
Environment Vars UPPER_SNAKE_CASE API_URL, DATABASE_HOST

Script Template

bash
#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

readonly SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
readonly SCRIPT_NAME="$(basename "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"

# Cleanup on exit
cleanup() {
    rm -f "$SCRIPT_DIR"/*.tmp 2>/dev/null || true
}
trap cleanup EXIT

# Error handler
error_handler() {
    echo "Error on line $1" >&2
    exit 1
}
trap 'error_handler $LINENO' ERR

main() {
    # Script logic here
    echo "Running $SCRIPT_NAME"
}

main "$@"

Defensive Scripting

bash
# REQUIRED: Always start with this
set -euo pipefail
# -e: Exit on error
# -u: Error on undefined variables
# -o pipefail: Pipe fails if any command fails

# RECOMMENDED: Safer IFS
IFS=$'\n\t'

# REQUIRED: Quote all variables
echo "$var"                     # Good
echo $var                       # Bad - word splitting

# REQUIRED: Use [[ ]] for conditionals (Bash)
if [[ -f "$file" ]]; then       # Good
if [ -f "$file" ]; then         # POSIX only

Parameter Expansion

bash
# Defaults and validation
${var:-default}             # Use default if unset
${var:=default}             # Assign default if unset
${var:?error message}       # Error if unset

# String manipulation
${var#pattern}              # Remove prefix (shortest)
${var##pattern}             # Remove prefix (longest)
${var%pattern}              # Remove suffix (shortest)
${var%%pattern}             # Remove suffix (longest)
${var/old/new}              # Replace first
${var//old/new}             # Replace all
${#var}                     # Length

# Examples
file="document.txt"
echo "${file%%.*}"          # "document" (remove extension)
echo "${file##*.}"          # "txt" (get extension)

Functions

bash
# REQUIRED: Use local variables
get_user_name() {
    local user_id=$1
    local name
    name=$(grep "^${user_id}:" /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f5)
    echo "$name"
}

# Return values via stdout
result=$(get_user_name "1000")

# Return status codes
validate_file() {
    local file=$1
    if [[ ! -f "$file" ]]; then
        echo "Error: File not found: $file" >&2
        return 1
    fi
    return 0
}

if validate_file "$input_file"; then
    process_file "$input_file"
fi

Arrays

bash
# Indexed arrays
files=("file1.txt" "file2.txt" "file3.txt")
echo "${files[0]}"          # First element
echo "${files[@]}"          # All elements
echo "${#files[@]}"         # Array length

# Iterate safely
for file in "${files[@]}"; do
    echo "Processing: $file"
done

# Associative arrays (Bash 4+)
declare -A config
config[host]="localhost"
config[port]="8080"
echo "${config[host]}:${config[port]}"

File Operations

bash
# Read file line by line
while IFS= read -r line; do
    echo "Line: $line"
done < "input.txt"

# Read into array
mapfile -t lines < "input.txt"

# Write to file (heredoc)
cat > output.txt <<EOF
Line 1
Line 2
EOF

# Temp files with cleanup
temp_file=$(mktemp)
trap 'rm -f "$temp_file"' EXIT

Error Handling

bash
# Trap for cleanup
cleanup() {
    echo "Cleaning up..."
    rm -f "$temp_file"
}
trap cleanup EXIT

# Trap for errors
error_handler() {
    local line=$1
    echo "Error occurred on line $line" >&2
}
trap 'error_handler $LINENO' ERR

# Check command exists
if ! command -v python3 &>/dev/null; then
    echo "Error: python3 not found" >&2
    exit 1
fi

# Conditional execution
command1 && command2        # Run command2 only if command1 succeeds
command1 || command2        # Run command2 only if command1 fails

Argument Parsing with getopts

bash
usage() {
    echo "Usage: $0 [-v] [-o output] [-h]"
    echo "  -v        Verbose mode"
    echo "  -o FILE   Output file"
    echo "  -h        Show help"
    exit 1
}

verbose=false
output_file=""

while getopts "vo:h" opt; do
    case $opt in
        v) verbose=true ;;
        o) output_file="$OPTARG" ;;
        h) usage ;;
        *) usage ;;
    esac
done
shift $((OPTIND - 1))

# Remaining args in $@

Logging

bash
log() {
    local level=$1
    shift
    echo "[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] [$level] $*" >&2
}

log_info() { log "INFO" "$@"; }
log_warn() { log "WARN" "$@"; }
log_error() { log "ERROR" "$@"; }

# Usage
log_info "Starting process"
log_error "Failed to connect"

Debugging

bash
# Enable debugging
set -x                      # Print commands
PS4='+ ${BASH_SOURCE}:${LINENO}: '  # Better debug output

# Debug specific section
set -x
# code to debug
set +x

# Run script with debug
bash -x script.sh
bash -n script.sh           # Syntax check only

Common Patterns

bash
# Check if root
if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "This script must be run as root" >&2
    exit 1
fi

# Safe directory change
cd "$target_dir" || exit 1

# Process files safely (handles spaces)
find . -name "*.txt" -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
    echo "Processing: $file"
done

# Retry pattern
retry() {
    local max_attempts=$1
    local delay=$2
    shift 2
    local attempt=1

    while [[ $attempt -le $max_attempts ]]; do
        if "$@"; then
            return 0
        fi
        log_warn "Attempt $attempt failed, retrying in ${delay}s..."
        sleep "$delay"
        ((attempt++))
    done
    return 1
}

retry 3 5 curl -f "https://api.example.com/health"

Recommended Tooling

Tool Purpose
shellcheck Static analysis (required)
shfmt Code formatting
bats-core Testing framework
bash 5.x Modern features (avoid macOS default 3.2)

ShellCheck Usage

bash
# Run ShellCheck
shellcheck script.sh

# Disable specific warning (sparingly)
# shellcheck disable=SC2086
echo $UNQUOTED_VAR

# Follow sourced files
shellcheck -x script.sh

Testing with bats-core

bash
#!/usr/bin/env bats
# File: test_script.bats

source ./script.sh

@test "add function returns correct sum" {
    result=$(add 5 3)
    [ "$result" = "8" ]
}

@test "validate_file fails on missing file" {
    run validate_file "nonexistent.txt"
    [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
}

Run tests:

bash
bats tests/

POSIX Compatibility

For maximum portability (sh, dash, ash):

sh
#!/bin/sh
# Use [ ] instead of [[ ]]
if [ -f "file.txt" ]; then
    echo "File exists"
fi

# No arrays, use positional parameters
set -- "apple" "banana" "cherry"
echo "First: $1"

# No $() in older shells, use backticks
current_date=`date +%Y-%m-%d`

Production Best Practices

  1. Defensive header - Always set -euo pipefail
  2. Quote everything - Prevent word splitting and glob expansion
  3. Local variables - Use local in functions
  4. ShellCheck clean - No warnings before commit
  5. Cleanup traps - Always clean up temp files
  6. Meaningful exit codes - 0 for success, non-zero for errors
  7. Logging to stderr - Keep stdout for data, stderr for logs
  8. Check dependencies - Verify required commands exist
  9. Handle signals - Trap SIGTERM for graceful shutdown
  10. Document usage - Include --help option

References

Didn't find tool you were looking for?

Be as detailed as possible for better results