Comments on: Shell Script Language – Use Perl, Not Bash

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:59:42 +0000

As a contractor that values job duration over value, I much more prefer bash:) Honestly, these kids today checkout one my bash scripts and their heads just about fall off!

By: Vincent

Vincent — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:09:50 +0000

If the script I want to write does many system calls, I usually use the bash. If the script I want to write does many calculations, I use perl. If it does both, I decide which is easier. It’s a matter of task.

By: cesar_spain

cesar_spain — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:42:38 +0000

I have written a complete system for automatization in Bash:
-> Basic Mechanism: SSH/SCP remote scripting through expect to machine’s lists and SQL scripts launch.
-> Intepreters: build bash scripts based on tag language that will be launched by the basic mechanism.

For me, it was a painful experience, especially character mapping and so on. I solved this issue using temporal files with bash environment on it.

It took me a whole year to have something functional (tag definition language).

Bash is a requirement in my enviroment but I was wondering, is there any other tool that simplifies the stuff. Bash is really painful. The core, right now, is working beutifully due to it’s simplicity. But it is a challenge to code a whole project (with modules, and so on).

Another thing is that it is difficult to parallized task keeping a clear execution path. Using nohup with counters to know if all processes ended.

As a conclusion: bash can be fine for little scripts only. I guess perl and so on allow you to manage threads and stuff like that and have a logger (you don’t have to build your own logger), to make it faster, and, hopefully, faster development.

Any ideas? It is working fine right now, and it is flexible to extend since each module do very little things. But each platform brings new stuff to change, particulary the character mapping and so on.

Thanks,

Cesar

By: BinnyVA

BinnyVA — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:03:04 +0000

@Vu
Good point. I am not a sysadmin – I am a programmer. So my thinking might be a bit biased in that direction.

By: Vu

Vu — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:52:59 +0000

Every unix sysadmin should be well versed in shell scripting. It’s mandatory. For that same group of people, perl is not mandatory, but a very nice to have. Take a look at the OS init scripts. They’re all shell scripts. These are the kinds of scripts sysadmins work with the great majority of the time. Yes, there are times when perl makes more sense, but I would say this is rare…for the sysadmin crowd. If you’re a sysadmin, look at any decent init script. If you can’t write something similar…with the same level of difficulty/elegance, you need to improve your shell scripting skills. Another aspect to keep in mind is shell scripting is basically just blocks of system commands. As a sysadmin, the better you can shell script, the better you are at the command line and vice versa. A sysadmin spends most of his time operating on the commandline. You might as well write as much of your scripts in bash as possible to complement your commandline skills.

By: My Windows/DOS Applications | Bin-Blog

My Windows/DOS Applications | Bin-Blog — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:11:36 +0000

[...] to love the features that is provided by bash(Linux shell scripting language). Then after a while, you will hate that too – and will use higher level languages. And thus, a programmer is [...]

By: Jadu Saikia

Jadu Saikia — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:16:45 +0000

Nice explanation.

http://unstableme.blogspot.com/search/label/Bash

By: Adam niranj

Adam niranj — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:20:56 +0000

could any one do a favour for me.. i want a bash or python or perl script to run more than one Bash scripts… please help me out…

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:44:20 +0000

Thanks BinnyVA.

By: BinnyVA

BinnyVA — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:10:20 +0000

@Tom
Just put those command in backticks(`). Like this

`service stop mysqld`