Aug 11, 2010

Settings That Should be on Every Bash Script

When you really want a solid bash script, consider setting all of these options.

#!/bin/bash
#$URL$
#$Id$

# Enable debugging
# set -v
# set -x

# Exit if any undefined variable is used.
set -u

# Exit this script if it any subprocess exits non-zero.
set -e

# If any process in a pipeline fails, the return value is a failure.
set -o pipefail

Note that $URL$ and $Id$ are meant for subversion.