Bash

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Retry, Backoff and Timeout Strategies in Shell Scripts

Maxim Mironjuk - May 06, 2026

Shell scripts that talk to network services, APIs and external systems fail at the first transient error unless they have retry logic. Exponential backoff with jitter, the timeout command, and clear max retry limits make shell scripts resilient, so an operator does not have to restart them by hand in the middle of the night.

Bash

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Connecting Terraform and Ansible with Bash Glue Code

Maxim Mironjuk - April 30, 2026

Terraform provisions infrastructure, Ansible configures it, but between the two tools most teams leave a manual gap. Bash glue code closes that gap: read state, generate inventory, trigger playbooks, and handle errors in one central place instead of connecting two tools by copy and paste.

Bash Linux

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fzf in Bash: Building Interactive Selection Menus for Scripts

Maxim Mironjuk - April 24, 2026

fzf turns any list a Bash script produces into a searchable selection menu. Instead of typing numbers, the user types a few letters and instantly gets a filtered list of matches. This article shows how to integrate fzf into your own scripts, including preview windows, multi-select and a solid fallback for environments without fzf.

Bash Linux

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Bash Monitoring Scripts for Servers and Containers

Maxim Mironjuk - April 24, 2026

Bash-based monitoring scripts provide ready-to-use coverage for servers and containers without external dependencies. CPU/RAM/disk thresholds, HTTP health checks, Docker container status, and automatic alerts by email or webhook, all with plain shell tools and clear alerting logic.

Bash Docker

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Simulating CI Matrix Builds Locally with Bash Loops

Maxim Mironjuk - April 23, 2026

Before a matrix configuration goes live in GitHub Actions or GitLab CI, prototyping it in Bash pays off: run the same combinatorics of versions, operating systems and environments locally through a loop, debug failures directly in the shell, and only then write the final YAML matrix. That saves expensive trial-and-error commits and shows which combinations actually make sense.

Bash Linux

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Column and paste for Tabular Output in the Shell

Maxim Mironjuk - April 22, 2026

Raw text data separated by commas or tabs becomes hard to read as soon as more than three columns are involved. column -t automatically aligns columns, paste merges several files line by line side by side, and together the two tools build readable reports directly in the shell, without any spreadsheet or external table tool.

Bash

AI generated

Understanding Exit Codes as an API Between Scripts

Maxim Mironjuk - April 20, 2026

Exit codes are the only structured interface between Bash scripts. Anyone who understands what 0 to 255 mean, how $? works, when set -e does not trigger and how pipefail rescues pipe exit codes writes scripts that communicate reliably with each other instead of silently overlooking errors.

Bash

AI generated

Understanding Subshell Scoping: Why Variables Vanish After a Pipe

Maxim Mironjuk - April 19, 2026

Anyone who increments a variable inside a while-read loop after a pipe and then finds it back at zero outside the pipe has run into one of Bash's best-known traps: every stage of a pipeline runs in its own subshell. This article explains the mechanism and shows three robust workarounds, from shopt -s lastpipe to process substitution.

Bash Linux

AI generated

/dev/tcp in Bash: TCP Connections Without curl or netcat

Maxim Mironjuk - April 18, 2026

Bash can open TCP sockets, build HTTP requests by hand, and test ports without curl, wget, or netcat, through the built-in /dev/tcp pseudo-device. Understanding the mechanics helps you secure minimal containers and restrictive environments, but you also need to know the clear limits: no TLS, no UDP with real feedback, and no header control like a real HTTP client offers.

Bash Linux

AI generated

Exporting Bash Script Metrics to Prometheus: The Node Exporter Textfile Collector

Maxim Mironjuk - April 08, 2026

A cron job that runs at night normally vanishes without a trace for Prometheus: no running process means no scrapable HTTP endpoint. The Node Exporter textfile collector solves that problem by reading simple .prom files from the filesystem that a Bash script writes itself, making cron job duration, success, or failure queryable in Prometheus without any extra service.