Shell Scripting

Purpose

Provides patterns and best practices for writing maintainable shell scripts with error handling, argument parsing, and portability considerations. Covers POSIX sh vs Bash decision-making, parameter expansion, integration with common utilities (jq, yq, awk), and testing with ShellCheck and Bats.

When to Use This Skill

Use shell scripting when:

• Orchestrating existing command-line tools and system utilities
• Writing CI/CD pipeline scripts (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
• Creating container entrypoints and initialization scripts
• Automating system administration tasks (backups, log rotation)
• Building development tooling (build scripts, test runners)