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Error handling in bash
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this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026
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Programming
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Let me just drop my materials for a talk i've given about basically this topic: https://codeberg.org/flart/you_suck_at_shell_scripting/src/branch/main/you_suck.md
Mainly because: The linked article is all nice and dandy, but it completely ignores the topic of double brackets and why they're nice.
And also, and this is my very strong opinion: if you end up thinking about exception handling (like the mentioned traps) in shell scripts, you should stop immediately and switch to a proper programming language.
Shell scripts are great, i love them. But they have an area they're good for and a lot of areas where they aren't.
But call it a bash script then! Remember:
#!/bin/shis run by all kinds of shells; consider them POSIX. Bash is#!/bin/bash.Uhm, yes. I noted exactly that as well.
Also bash is not always at /bin/bash :-)
Yeah ok, /usr/bin/env then.
Edit: Or /bin/sh (oold convention) and check for bash.
Well, that won't work on openbsd (and probably freebsd), because non-default.stuff lands in /usr/local/bin.
For Linux you should be fine though.