sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/bash

# ❌ Unquoted variable (word splitting + globbing)
for f in $files; do rm $f; done
 
# ✅
for f in "${files[@]}"; do rm -- "$f"; done

# ❌ Unquoted command substitution
path=$(find . -name config)
cat $path  # breaks on spaces
 
# ✅
while IFS= read -r -d '' path; do
    cat -- "$path"
done < <(find . -name config -type f -print0)

# ❌ Using backticks for command substitution
result=`echo hello`
 
# ✅ — $() nests cleanly
result=$(echo hello)

# ❌ String comparison without quotes
if [ $var = "hello" ]; then  # breaks if var is empty or has spaces
 
# ✅
if [[ "$var" = "hello" ]]; then

# ❌ Single bracket test (POSIX but fragile)
if [ -f "$file" -a -r "$file" ]; then
 
# ✅ — [[ is safer, supports &&/||, no word splitting inside
if [[ -f "$file" && -r "$file" ]]; then

# ❌ Testing command exit status with if [ $? -eq 0 ]
grep -q pattern file
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "found"; fi
 
# ✅ — test command directly
if grep -q pattern file; then echo "found"; fi

# ❌ String equality with == outside [[
if [ "$a" == "$b" ]; then  # == not POSIX in [ ]
 
# ✅
if [[ "$a" == "$b" ]]; then  # Bash
# or POSIX:
if [ "$a" = "$b" ]; then

# ❌ Arithmetic with [ ] and string comparison
if [ "$count" -gt 10 ]; then
 
# ✅ — (( )) for arithmetic
if (( count > 10 )); then

# ❌ Parsing ls output
for f in $(ls *.txt); do process "$f"; done
 
# ✅ — glob directly
for f in *.txt; do
    [[ -e "$f" ]] || continue  # handle no-match
    process "$f"
done

# ❌ Reading file line-by-line with for
for line in $(cat file.txt); do  # splits on words, not lines
 
# ✅
while IFS= read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]]; do
    process "$line"
done < file.txt

# ❌ Seq for counting
for i in $(seq 1 10); do
 
# ✅ — brace expansion (Bash)
for i in {1..10}; do
# or C-style:
for (( i = 1; i <= 10; i++ )); do

# ❌ Processing command output line-by-line with pipe (subshell trap)
count=0
cat file.txt | while read -r line; do
    (( ++count ))  # count resets after loop — subshell
done
echo "$count"  # always 0
 
# ✅ — redirect, not pipe
count=0
while IFS= read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]]; do
    (( ++count ))
done < file.txt
echo "$count"

# ❌ Chained grep | grep for AND
grep "error" log.txt | grep "timeout"
 
# ✅ — single grep with pattern
grep -E "error.*timeout|timeout.*error" log.txt
# or awk for complex logic:
awk '/error/ && /timeout/' log.txt

# ❌ cat + pipe (UUOC — Useless Use of Cat)
cat file.txt | grep pattern
 
# ✅
grep pattern file.txt

# ❌ Temp file for diff between commands
cmd1 > /tmp/a.txt
cmd2 > /tmp/b.txt
diff /tmp/a.txt /tmp/b.txt
rm /tmp/a.txt /tmp/b.txt
 
# ✅ — process substitution
diff <(cmd1) <(cmd2)

# ❌ Ignoring pipe failures (only last command's exit code)
false | true
echo $?  # 0 — false's failure hidden
 
# ✅
set -o pipefail
false | true
echo $?  # 1

# ❌ Using return for string values
get_name() {
    return "Alice"  # return is for exit codes (0-255)
}
 
# ✅ — echo + capture
get_name() {
    echo "Alice"
}
name=$(get_name)

# ❌ Global variables modified inside functions
result=""
compute() { result="done"; }
 
# ✅ — use local, return via stdout
compute() {
    local tmp
    tmp=$(do_work)
    echo "$tmp"
}
result=$(compute)

# ❌ Function keyword (not POSIX)
function my_func {
 
# ✅
my_func() {

# ❌ No error handling — script continues after failure
cd /some/dir
rm -rf *  # if cd fails, deletes from wrong directory
 
# ✅
set -euo pipefail
 
cd /some/dir || { echo "cd failed" >&2; exit 1; }
# Deletion requires a separately verified target and user scope;
# changing directory and strict mode alone do not make deletion safe.

# ❌ No cleanup on exit
tmpfile=$(mktemp)
# ... script might exit early, leaving tmpfile
 
# ✅ — trap for cleanup
tmpfile=$(mktemp)
trap 'rm -f "$tmpfile"' EXIT

# ❌ Silencing errors blindly
command 2>/dev/null
 
# ✅ — redirect only when you know what you're suppressing
command 2>/dev/null || true  # explicit: we expect and accept failure