Tag: Bash

1. Build CSV-to-JSON Conversion Pipelines in Bash

   Apr 26, 2025

   CSV exports from ERP systems, inventory management, or legacy databases almost always need to become JSON before they can be imported into modern APIs. A CSV to JSON pipeline built from mlr, jq, and Bash glue code handles type coercion, nesting, and validation without a single line of Python.

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2. Never Leaving Secrets and Passwords in Bash History

   Apr 21, 2025

   Passing a password as a command line argument leaves it permanently in Bash history, visible to anyone who later uses the same shell. This article shows how secrets end up in Bash history, the process list, and logs, how HISTCONTROL and safe handoff methods prevent that, and how to search existing history files for forgotten credentials.

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3. Automated Changelog Generator with Bash and Conventional Commits

   Apr 20, 2025

   A good changelog generator reads the commit history, recognizes the type and scope of every change, and builds a structured CHANGELOG.md from it, with no manual editing required. This article shows how such a changelog generator can be built as a plain Bash script, what pitfalls appear when parsing Conventional Commits, and how the result plugs cleanly into a release pipeline.

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4. System Diagnostics with ps, top, ss, lsof, journalctl and Bash Helpers

   Apr 17, 2025

   When a production system starts behaving unexpectedly, the quality of your diagnostic toolset decides whether the outage lasts minutes or hours. ps, top, ss, lsof and journalctl together provide a complete picture, provided you know the right flags and combine them into targeted Bash helpers.

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5. BATS für Bash-Tests in CI einsetzen

   Apr 10, 2025

   Shell-Skripte ohne Tests sind eine Blackbox in der Automatisierung. Das Bash Automated Testing System (BATS) bringt strukturierte Unit-Tests, Fixtures und Mocking in die Shell-Welt – und lässt sich nahtlos in GitHub Actions, GitLab CI und Jenkins integrieren, ohne externe Laufzeitabhängigkeiten.

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6. Using Temporary Files Safely and Cleaning Them Up Reliably

   Apr 1, 2025

   A fixed path like /tmp/script.tmp in a shell script is an open invitation for race conditions, data leaks, and symlink attacks. mktemp guarantees unique, safe temporary files, and trap EXIT ensures they get cleaned up in every termination scenario.

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7. Bash in CI/CD: What Works Locally and Breaks in Pipelines

   Mar 28, 2025

   The most frustrating pattern in CI/CD practice: a Bash script runs flawlessly locally and fails in the pipeline with a cryptic error. The cause is rarely a bug in the script itself. It is a difference in the execution environment. PATH, login shells, missing environment variables, different Bash versions, and Docker container differences are the systematic traps that break Bash in CI/CD.

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8. Reviewing Shell Scripts: What Teams Should Standardize

   Mar 8, 2025

   Without shared rules, shell codebases end up where every script follows a different style, error handling is missing or inconsistent, and nobody knows which checks are mandatory in review. A review checklist, clear style rules, EditorConfig and ShellCheck as a CI gate lay the groundwork so teams can review shell scripts without debating every pull request from first principles.

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9. Measuring and Improving Code Coverage for Bash Scripts

   Feb 23, 2025

   Having a bats test suite for Bash scripts tells you nothing about which lines are actually executed. Code coverage with kcov closes that gap, shows line by line what tests really cover, and makes untested error paths visible long before they become a problem in production.

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10. Bash for Backups: Rotating Snapshots and Restore Tests

    Feb 20, 2025

    A backup that has never been tested is just a hypothesis. Bash backup scripts that combine rsync for incremental snapshots with tar for archived copies, clean up rotating backups according to a configurable retention policy, and run restore tests automatically make the difference between a data protection routine and a verified recovery process.

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