Bash Scripting Reference

Bash scripting fundamentals and advanced patterns. Streams, process substitution, arrays, functions.

Topics

Topic Description

Topic	Description
Streams	File descriptors, redirection, stderr handling
Pipes	Pipelines, process substitution, subshells
Variables	Parameter expansion, defaults, substitution
Tests	Test expressions, conditionals, comparisons
Loops	for, while, until, loop control
Arrays	Indexed and associative arrays
Functions	Function definition, scope, return values
ANSI	Escape sequences, colors, cursor control
Glob Patterns	Wildcards, extended globbing, `nullglob`, `globstar`
Brace Expansion	Comma lists, ranges, zero-padding, cartesian product
Process Substitution	`<()` and `>()` — diff commands, join outputs, feed loops
jq Sysadmin	jq patterns for system administration
Refactoring	Reduce complexity, eliminate anti-patterns, safer scripts
Heredocs	Heredoc, here-string, script generation, tee capture
Exit Codes	$?, set -euo pipefail, &&, \|\|, script safety
Traps	trap EXIT, signal handling, temp file cleanup
Parameter Expansion	${var}, defaults, path ops, substitution, case conversion
Safe Workflows	Interactive validation, confirm-before-act, safe delete patterns
Script Lifecycle	Four-stage /tmp/ → staging → scripts → ~/.local/bin/ progression

File descriptors, redirection, stderr handling

Pipelines, process substitution, subshells

Parameter expansion, defaults, substitution

Test expressions, conditionals, comparisons

for, while, until, loop control

Indexed and associative arrays