Tag: Bash

1. Testing and Automating HTTP APIs with curl in Bash

   Jan 2, 2026

   curl is the Swiss army knife for HTTP from the shell. Anyone who knows the right flags, parses JSON responses precisely with jq, handles authentication securely, and implements retry logic with exponential backoff can automate REST APIs directly in Bash, without external frameworks.

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2. Processing CSV and TSV Files in Bash Pragmatically

   Dec 28, 2025

   Tabular data shows up in almost every automation task: export files, reports, configuration, migration sources. With the right tools, awk for column operations, read with IFS for line-based processing, mapfile for in-memory work, CSV and TSV files can be processed reliably in Bash without external dependencies.

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3. Implementing Spinner Animations in Bash Scripts

   Dec 28, 2025

   A spinner shows that a script is active even when the duration of a step is unknown and no percentage can be calculated. This article shows how a spinner animation emerges as a background process in Bash, how it is synchronized cleanly with a running command, and how trap ensures no spinner process is left orphaned.

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4. ShellCheck and Tests for Bash Scripts

   Dec 25, 2025

   Shell scripts are rarely tested, and that is exactly why they fail without warning in production. ShellCheck finds static errors before the script ever runs. The BATS framework enables real unit tests for Bash functions. Mocking strategies isolate external commands. CI integration ensures that every commit meets this standard.

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5. POSIX Shell Checklist for Portable Production Scripts

   Dec 25, 2025

   Calling a script POSIX compliant is quick to claim and rarely verified. This checklist provides concrete steps, tools and a test matrix to systematically secure an existing script against Dash, BusyBox ash and other lean shells.

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6. kubectl Wrapper Scripts for Daily DevOps Work

   Dec 20, 2025

   Anyone working with multiple Kubernetes clusters every day types the same kubectl commands hundreds of times and risks accidentally deleting something in the wrong namespace. A well designed kubectl wrapper in Bash shortens recurring commands, adds safety nets for production namespaces, and handles pod selection through a fuzzy finder instead of copying pod names by hand.

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7. Using OpenSSL and GPG in Shell Scripts

   Dec 20, 2025

   Anyone managing backups, configuration files, and API secrets from the shell eventually runs into OpenSSL and GPG. This article shows how to use both tools safely and practically in Bash scripts, from symmetric encryption through GPG signing to automated certificate checks without any interactive password prompts.

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8. Signal Handling and Cleanup with trap

   Dec 18, 2025

   When a shell script is terminated by Ctrl+C, kill or an error, lockfiles, temporary files and half-finished database operations are left behind unless signal handling is in place. The Bash builtin trap registers handlers for SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGPIPE, ERR and EXIT, turning cleanup into a reliable, orderly process.

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9. Build Terminal Dashboards for Log Analytics in Bash

   Dec 3, 2025

   Not every team has Grafana or an ELK stack available when they need to know fast how many errors a service is producing right now. A Bash terminal dashboard built from watch, tput, and ANSI color codes shows error rates, request rates, and log levels live, right inside the SSH session, without a browser and without additional infrastructure.

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10. Getting stdin, stdout, and Interactive Tools Right

    Dec 2, 2025

    Bash scripts that work correctly in a terminal often fail in pipes, as a cron job, or inside CI environments. The cause lies in how stdin, stdout, and interactive tools behave differently depending on context. /dev/null, /dev/tty, isatty detection, and non-interactive mode are the tools that make scripts work reliably in every context.

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