[erikb]

This more of a "should be", right? Maybe most shell scripts should use "sh" but I see "bash" way more often.

[stephenr]

I guess it comes down to how you interpret things.

I specifically said any decent shell script. My logic is that if it is not using "sh", but instead relying on bash (or any other specific shell really), it's not a decent shell script.

If I were to amend the sentence to make the meaning clearer, I would still not use "should be", I would use "must be".

[eropple]

You're overreaching. I write scripts against bash, not sh, because it's a better scripting language for what I need. It's more readable and its constructs are easier (for me) to follow. I don't care about POSIX-compatibility when bash can be installed literally anywhere. It's a dependency for the devops stuff that I run and maintain, much like Ruby is a dependency and all the gems in my Gemfile.

It's a considered decision, not a sign of "indecency".

[stephenr]

I suggest you read the accepted answer at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19428418/what-is-the-use-... for a brief look at why portable shell scripts are a better solution than bash specific scripts.

[eropple]

I suggest you read my post and maybe let it roll around your head that I've considered my environment and the domain of my problems in a way you aren't giving me credit for. Perhaps even, with that whole mention of devops, I do something such as--crazy thought incoming--install an updated version of bash on every system I must provision, just as I do Ruby, Python, etc.?

"Decent shell script" is not a synonym for "portable shell script" and the presumption therein is what I was addressing.

[sigzero]

Exactly so. If I want PORTABLE, I write to "sh". If I want BASH, I write to BASH. The term "decent shell script" is wrong the way he uses it.

[mysidia]

Perhaps he didn't deliver the point... but BASH is not a good or safe language to write to.

Writing to '/bin/sh' is understandable due to its ubiquitousness.

Bash is a superset that is not so ubiquitous, so it doesn't have the advantage that writing to /bin/sh does.

If you don't want portable, then don't write to shell script. Write to Perl Ruby or Python, which is also safer and more secure.

[stephenr]

> "Decent shell script" is not a synonym for "portable shell script"

Only for you. For me and a lot of others I suspect, if it isn't portable it isn't worth the trouble.

If you have to re-compile a newer/older version of a shell to get the same results across machines, any potential benefits start to seem insignificant compared to the effort involved.

[eropple]

How? I already am running Chef on every machine I touch.

[yen223]

If you can confidently assert that every shell script your system runs is "decent", then you'll have no problem. The thing is, very few of us can confidently make that assertion.

[stephenr]

That all depends where your shell scripts come from.

In my experience most of the shell scripts provided by packages for debian, do use /bin/sh.

A quick check of .sh files on a couple of squeeze/wheezy installs showed that the vast majority of shell scripts using Bash come from node modules, which quite frankly is not surprising.