Tag: Bash

1. Locking in Bash: flock, PID Files and Race Conditions

   Feb 15, 2026

   Bash scripts that run without locking in cron jobs or deployment pipelines risk race conditions when executed more than once. PID files are common but not atomic. flock offers kernel backed locks that are released automatically even after a crash, making it the right tool for reliable locking in shell scripts.

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2. Bash Job Control: fg, bg and disown Explained

   Feb 10, 2026

   Job control is far more than Ctrl-Z followed by a quick bg. Understanding how Bash manages jobs, process groups and signals lets you run long migrations, backups and maintenance tasks in the background without a dropped SSH session dragging all that progress down with it.

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3. Monitoring TLS Certificate Expiry with Bash: openssl Scripts

   Feb 10, 2026

   An expired TLS certificate is one of the few failures that can take a shop completely offline without a single code bug behind it. Monitoring TLS certificate expiry with Bash and openssl catches looming outages weeks in advance and prevents the midnight emergency call.

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4. Building a Minimal Webhook Receiver with netcat in Bash

   Feb 8, 2026

   For quickly debugging an incoming webhook locally, you do not need a full HTTP server. A minimal webhook receiver with netcat and a Bash loop accepts requests, shows headers and body, and answers with a valid HTTP response, in a few lines and with no dependencies.

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5. Automating Git and GitLab Workflows Cleanly in Bash

   Feb 8, 2026

   Release scripts, branch validation, CI/CD triggers, and automatic merge strategies: anyone mapping Git workflows in Bash needs robust error handling, safe branch checks, and precise API calls against the GitLab REST API so deployments do not get stuck halfway through.

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6. Safe File Handling: Spaces, Special Characters, and Binary Data

   Feb 8, 2026

   Filenames with spaces, tabs, newlines, and non-printable characters exist on every system. Most shell scripts handle them incorrectly, resulting in silent data corruption, failed operations, or even security problems. Null delimiters, printf, and defensive file operations are the answer to safe file handling in the shell.

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7. Hardening Bash Scripts Against Command Injection from User Input

   Feb 7, 2026

   Every piece of user input that flows unvalidated into a Bash command is a potential command injection vector. This article shows how attackers exploit arguments, environment variables, and file contents, where plain quoting reaches its limits, and how whitelisting, wrapper functions, and targeted tests systematically harden Bash scripts against command injection.

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8. Building Reliable Cron Jobs: Logging, Locking, Monitoring and Exit Codes

   Jan 22, 2026

   A crontab entry is only the beginning of a cron job. Without locking, jobs run in parallel. Without logging, errors disappear. Without monitoring, a broken cron job can run unnoticed for weeks. flock, structured logging, exit code checks and systemd timers turn fragile cron calls into reliable, observable automation units.

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9. AWS and gcloud CLI Scripting Patterns in Bash

   Jan 12, 2026

   Anyone running both AWS and Google Cloud quickly ends up writing two parallel worlds of scripts with different pagination, error handling, and output formats. Bash patterns for the AWS and gcloud CLI unify authentication, retry logic, and JSON processing behind a shared interface instead of reinventing each cloud separately.

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10. Release Scripts with Checkpoints and Dry Run Mode

    Jan 6, 2026

    A release script without a dry run mode is a blind flight into production. With checkpoint flags, --dry-run, rollback logic, and a complete step-by-step log, you get release scripts you can test beforehand, abort on failure, and resume after interruptions.

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