Bashplate

Bashplate generates bash boilerplate code for option parsing and validation.

Currently deployed here: https://bashplate.wolfgang-werner.net

Why? Each time (long enough to forget all the details after writing the last one) I need to write a shell script:

• 🧐 "I want this to be reuseable, so I'll use proper options & help messages"
• 🤔 "Hmmm, was it getopt or getopts? Which was the GNU and which the POSIX one? Shouldn't I use argbash?"
• 😤 "So how does the option spec need to look like? Why is that colon at the start again? Does the following option take an argument?" and so on.
• 😩 "How to I test if an argument was set? Reliably and portably?"

Now, I either:

• Copy an old script and fiddle around in it - bad, since there is stuff to remove, I could break things and I still need to think
• Read up on option parsing - bad, as it takes time and I have to decide between getopt, getopts and argbash
• Just skip parameterizing the script and hard code everything - bad, obviously

So basically, I try to hack myself into writing better scripts.

If you can relate, give it a spin.

Requirements

• POSIX compliance flavor, as I want to run in stripped down Docker containers
• GNU flavor with long opts support, as I like short opts for one offs when typing, long opts in scripts for readability.
• Minimum / No dependencies
• Easy to put on the web, so I cannot lose it & don't have to install anything.

Development

Contributions welcome.

• yarn install - Project setup
• yarn dev - Compiles and hot-reloads for development
• yarn build - Compiles and minifies for production
• yarn lint - Lints code style issues (& fixes them where possible)

Pushing to master deploys to https://bashplate.wolfgang-werner.net and https://bashplate.now.sh (until vercel decides to turn off now.sh).