bash-core VS hasura-ci-cd-action

Error handling is also atrocious. Doing set -e fixes some issues, but there are plenty of valid cases in which one of your commands will have an error, and your script will continue execution like nothing ever happened. And, in the case of an error, as I'm sure you have realized, diagnostics are absolutely terrible. You're extremely lucky to get a line number (which I think was only added since Bash 5.1), but that's it. If you want anything more, like a stacktrace, you're stuck in the water. I have developed a library, bash-core, to help with this, but the stacktrace handling acts unexpectedly if there are errors within subshells.

I'm quite happy to see that something Bash-related is on Hacker News! Unfortunately it seems that I don't really agree with much the author...

While I do agree that it would be nice to be able to have 'local' functions and have inter-function cleanup work better, the logical conclusion for me was not to use function subshells. Since the use case is for larger programs (where different functions may want to have their own cleanup mechanisms), I'm opting to go for more of a library route. For example, I'm working on a Bash library that includes a function to allow different sources to add (and remove) functions to the same `TRAP`. A similar function may be useful, possibly involving the `RETURN` trap and the `-T` flag. Obviously, using a package manager for _Bash_ of all languages brings in a lot of overhead, but I think it can be quite powerful, especially with a potential "Bundle" feature that makes scripts work without the package manager.

Concerning specifically the use of subshells, (as other commenters have pointed out) it significantly reduces performance. I also disagree that dynamic scoping is necessarily bad for Bash. I find it quite useful when I need to use various common functions to manipulate a variable - since modifying and 'returning' variables from a function is usually either slow or verbose with Bash. Admittedly though, this feature is quite annoying at times - for example, most public functions in my Bash package manager[2] all have their variables prefixed with two underscores - because they `source` all the shell scripts of all package dependencies - so I want to be extra certain nothing weird happens

[1] https://github.com/hyperupcall/bash-core/blob/a17ab0a8b6070f...

I write a LOT of bash/shell scripts. And I don't like it, it's just part of what I have to do.

Learning a handful of bash idioms and best-practices has made a massive impact for me, and life much easier. The shell is something you cannot avoid if you're a programmer or other sort of code-wrangler.

You can interact with it + be (mostly) clueless and still get things done, but it's a huge return-on-investment to set up "shellcheck" and lookup "bash'isms", etc.

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(Off-topic: I am convinced Ruby cannot be beaten for shell-scripting purposes. If I had a wish, it would be that every machine had a tiny Ruby interpreter on it so I could just use Ruby. I'm not even "a Ruby guy", it's just unreasonably good/easy for this sort of thing. And I keep my mind open for better alternatives constantly.)

Example of near-identical script in bash vs Ruby:

https://github.com/GavinRay97/hasura-ci-cd-action/blob/maste...

https://github.com/GavinRay97/hasura-ci-cd-action/blob/maste...