The snippet library.
Small, practical examples. Search by task or narrow things down below.
Observe command substitution’s trailing-newline removal
Bash Scripts: Command substitution removes trailing newlines while preserving embedded ones.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Parse a short option with getopts
Read a named option and handle invalid flags explicitly.
getopts✓ Tested
Parse a small set of long options
Bash Scripts: Use a loop and case statement to consume a value-bearing long option.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Parse digits with leading zeroes as decimal
Bash Scripts: The 10# prefix avoids Bash treating a leading zero as an octal notation.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Pass a variable to standard input
Bash Scripts: A here-string supplies the expanded value followed by a newline.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Prepend items while preserving existing array values
Bash Scripts: Construct a new array with the new values before the quoted original expansion.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Preserve a failure status while an EXIT trap runs
Bash Scripts: Capture the status immediately on entry to the trap before running cleanup commands.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Prevent a variable value from expanding as a filename pattern
Bash Scripts: Quote a variable to pass its literal contents even when matching filenames exist.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Print text containing percent characters literally
Bash Scripts: Never use untrusted text as the printf format string.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Read a file without losing its last line
Handle spaces, backslashes, and a final line without a newline.
read lines✓ Tested
Read a line without losing backslashes
Bash Scripts: Read a line without losing backslashes with a small standalone Bash program.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested
Read a string’s character length
Bash Scripts: Bash parameter length counts characters under the current locale.
Bash Scripts✓ Tested