I’ve been struggling with a rather complex shell script, and it’s becoming apparent that Bash might not be the best choice for this particular task. While I usually gravitate towards statically typed languages like Go or Rust, I’ve noticed that many people recommend alternative languages such as Lua or Python for scripting tasks.
I’m curious to know your opinions and experiences with scripting languages for larger or more intricate shell scripts. Have you ever encountered a situation where Bash just didn’t cut it, and if so, which scripting languages did you turn to for a more effective solution? Are there any specific languages you found particularly suitable for debugging, testing, or handling complex logic in your shell scripts?
Good question.
I choose PowerShell over Python when I need to call out to an existing command line utility, because I find the Python subprocess module is a huge pain in the ass.
PowerShell has about 80% of the power and readability of Python, while actually being a native shell.
Yeah, that’s fair. I was wondering if you’d call that out.
Popenis rather opaque. I don’t know that I’d go so far as to try to remember yet another language to avoid it. I respect the decision though, especially with the portability of modern PowerShell.I think you’d like the alternatives that mix languages with Shell. See Google’s zx or (shameless plug) my pysh for instance.