Shell Script Language – Use Perl, Not Bash

To me, a shell script is a script that automates repetitive tasks. But that is not the ‘official’ definition. Wikipedia has this definition…

A shell script is a script written for the shell, or command line interpreter, of an operating system.

I use a definition that defines the purpose of the script – while the others prefer a definition that defines the technology used. I am not going to claim that my definition is better than the other definition – that’s pointless. Besides, even I think that the ‘other’ definition is the right one. But I will try to show you the advantages of my approach.

The Purpose

I like to automate things(in other words, I’m lazy). So I have a nice little collection of custom shell scripts. But there is a huge barrier to writing shell scripts – the language used. Traditionally shell scripts are written in a language provided by the shell – like bash or tcsh. That is the problem – these languages are Bad – with a capital ‘B’.

The Problem

To people who are accustomed to decent languages, these shell languages will seem clunky – or even evil. But since most shell scripts are small, most people don’t mind the torture.

In bash, the control flow commands seem to be thrown in as a after thought rather than something that’s built into the language. If you don’t believe me, compare the ‘if’ loop of bash and Perl.

Bash

This code checks wether the variable ‘$value’ has the value 0 – if so it prints the message ‘No Value’

if [ $value -eq 0 ] ; then
	echo "No Value"
fi

Perl

The same code in Perl…

if($value == 0) {
	print "No Value";
}

Of course, Perl experts will go for if(!$value) or even unless($value) – but that’s not the point. See how better the code looks in Perl. Yeah, even I am surprised to hear those words – Perl is considered by many to be an ‘ugly’ language. But when compared to shell languages, Perl is a gem(sorry about the pun – couldn’t resist).

The Solution

The solution is simple – don’t use a shell language to write your shell scripts – use a high level scripting language like Perl. Or Python, Ruby, PHP, Tcl or even JavaScript.

I still use bash to write shell scripts – but if the shell script has an if condition(other than a simple argument check), I use a higher language – usually Perl.

Advantages of using a Shell Language

• Its supported in even the tinest linux distros – even in embedded systems.
• Its the method preferred by the majority – I hope this will change soon.
• Command calls look more natural in a shell language.

Advantages of using a High Level Language

• Better Code
• Easy to maintain
• Faster development
• Libraries provide a lot of functionality
• Easier to port to different platforms.

So why am I telling you all this? Two reasons…

One, the next time you are going to write a shell script, I want you to choose a high level language rather than using bash.

The second reason is that now that my series on Linux MP3 Players are over, I am going to take a small break from desktop posts and write on more ‘linuxy’ topics. And one of those topic is Shell Scripting. So in the future posts, I am going to share some of my shell scripts with you. So when I publish a Perl script and call it a shell script, I don’t want you to get confused .

Update: This article is translated to Serbo-Croatian language.