Coding Style Guidelines

Welcome to the Coding Style and Guidelines for Shell Scripting. This document outlines best practices and recommendations for writing clean and maintainable shell scripts.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Naming Conventions
• Indentation
• Comments
• Error Handling
• Useful References

Introduction

Shell scripting is a powerful tool for automating tasks in Unix-like systems. Adhering to good coding practices ensures your scripts are readable and maintainable.

Naming Conventions

• Use descriptive variable and function names.
• Variables should be in lowercase (e.g., my_variable).
• Constants should be in uppercase (e.g., PI=3.14).
• Functions should use snake_case (e.g., my_function).

Indentation

• Use a consistent and readable indentation style (e.g., 4 spaces or tabs).
• Maintain proper alignment for conditional statements and loops.

Example:

if [ "$condition" == "true" ]; then
    echo "Condition is true."
else
    echo "Condition is false."
fi

Comments

• Add comments to explain complex code or non-obvious decisions.
• Use clear and concise comments.
• Document the purpose and usage of functions and scripts.

Example:

# This function calculates the sum of two numbers.
calculate_sum() {
    # Add the two numbers together
    result=$(($1 + $2))
    echo "The sum is: $result"
}

Error Handling

• Check for errors and handle them gracefully.
• Use set -e to exit on error and set -u to fail on undefined variables.
• Provide informative error messages to aid debugging.

Example:

#!/bin/bash
set -e
set -u

if [ ! -f "$file" ]; then
    echo "Error: File '$file' does not exist."
    exit 1
fi

Useful References

Here are some useful references for improving your shell scripting skills:

• Bash Official Documentation
• ShellCheck: A tool for analyzing shell scripts.
• Google’s Shell Style Guide

Remember, these guidelines are meant to improve the quality of your shell scripts and make them more accessible to others. Happy scripting!