| name | shell-scripting |
| description | Shell script conventions, defensive patterns, and correctness rules: strict mode, quoting, portability, error handling, and common pitfalls. Invoke whenever task involves any interaction with shell scripts — writing, reviewing, debugging, or understanding .sh, .bash, .zsh files. |
Shell Scripting
Write defensively. Shell defaults are hostile — unquoted variables split, unset variables vanish silently, failed
commands continue. Every rule here exists to counteract a specific shell default that causes bugs.
References
Extended examples, code patterns, and lookup tables for the rules below.
- Strict mode, error handling, traps, debugging — [
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/strict-mode.md]: errexit
caveats, pipefail examples, trap patterns, temp file safety, debugging techniques
- Quoting rules, word splitting, globbing — [
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/quoting.md]: Three quoting mechanisms,
"$@" vs "$*", array expansion, printf vs echo, nested quoting
- POSIX sh vs bash, portable constructs — [
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/portability.md]: Feature comparison, GNU
vs BSD tool differences, portable pattern catalog
- Argument parsing, getopts, validation — [
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/arguments.md]: getopts template, manual
long-option parsing, validation patterns, usage messages, stdin detection
- Common shell scripting mistakes — [
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/pitfalls.md]: Iteration pitfalls, variable
pitfalls, test pitfalls, pipeline pitfalls, arithmetic traps
- Pure bash/sh alternatives to external commands — [
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/builtins.md]: Parameter
expansion, replacing sed/cut/basename/expr, arrays, read patterns, arithmetic
