[Bystroushaak]

I usually replace shell scripts with python (using sh module: https://amoffat.github.io/sh/ for calling other scripts/programs).

[pdimitar]

Golang is better suited for this, for my needs at least.

[ianlevesque]

Yeah, lego-acme is a solid alternative.

https://github.com/go-acme/lego

[yjftsjthsd-h]

Er, are we comparing ACME clients or shell alternatives?

[cozzyd]

yeah until your scripts stop running someday because python...

[Bystroushaak]

Can you elaborate?

[cozzyd]

Python scripts will often break with system upgrades, most acutely when Python2 went away, but under many other circumstances as well.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

I would expect python2 to only have gone away across major versions of an OS, which is about as non-disruptive as it could have been, considering.

Of course, as I write this ansible is broken on one of my machines for reasons that appear to stem from a python 3.x->3.y update, so...

[pornel]

That's the thing — Python can break with any OS update (I personally can break it whenever I touch it ;)

OTOH a script for /bin/sh written 30 years ago has a good chance running today unchanged.

Having said that, I still would not recommend shell for anything that needs to be robust and secure.

[Bystroushaak]

Well. I've been using python personally since 2007, and it never broke with update (I still occasionally run scripts written for 2.5). Also, I am working as a python backend dev, dealing with hundreds of systems (we are deploying 270+ systems and supporting another 340 user built docker images built on top of py library), and no problems there either. In my previous job, I was doing deployment to 4000+ kiosk computers, and still, no problems with python breaking.

What was definitely problematic was the update from 2 to 3. Another problem may be dependency management (people not pinning dependencies). But the python itself? What does it even mean? Interpreter not starting?

[broknbottle]

macOS doesn’t even come with Python..