Bash Testing Skill

When to Activate

• Writing tests for a new shell script
• Adding tests to an untested script
• Setting up BATS in a project
• Debugging why a BATS test is failing
• Mocking external commands in tests
• Adding BATS to a CI pipeline so shell scripts are tested alongside application code on every pull request
• Isolating a flaky integration test that depends on a real external command like git, curl, or docker
• Verifying every exit code path in a complex script that branches on multiple error conditions
• Writing unit tests for individual Bash functions by sourcing the script under test rather than executing it whole

BATS Setup

Installation