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The shellbase framework serves as a foundation for Unix shell scripts.
It follows POSIX, the Portable Operating System Interface standard, and runs
on any Unix-like system.
The framework provides logging, validation helpers, signal handling, garbage
collection, and support for concurrent instances.
The framework also has a website.
shellbase defines global variables and functions.
Clients may call any function without the base_ prefix.
The public functions are, in alphabetical order:
aud_only,
beroot,
beuser,
cheat,
chrono_get,
chrono_sta,
chrono_sto,
cmd_exists,
cmd_run,
cmd_runif,
cya,
die,
dng2jpg,
echo,
ellipsize,
file_exists,
gitfix,
gitlog,
handle_pipefails,
heic2jpg,
inside,
isempty,
isfunc,
isnumber,
isreadable,
isroot,
issolid,
iswritable,
log,
loge,
logw,
map_del,
map_get,
map_put,
nmea2gpx,
pdf2jpg,
pdf2png,
prettytable,
prettyuptime,
realdir,
realpath,
retry,
rev,
semver,
should_continue,
timestamp,
tolog,
tologe,
tolower,
totsout,
tsout,
url_exists,
user_exists,
var_exists,
ver_ge,
vid2aud,
ytda.
Global variables carry the BASE_ prefix.
Clients may use them and should place temporary files under $BASE_WIP.
Functions with the base_ prefix stay internal.
Clients shouldn’t call them.
The framework ships as a single non-executable POSIX shell script,
base.sh.
Install the file from the repository:
git clone https://github.com/rdavid/shellbase.git &&
./shellbase/app/installbrew install rdavid/tap/shellbaseOr install the file from a release.
Some operating systems require administrative rights to write to
/usr/local/bin.
Prefix tar with sudo or doas when needed:
REL=0.9.20261010
SRC=https://github.com/rdavid/shellbase/archive/refs/tags/v$REL.tar.gz
curl --location --silent $SRC |
tar \
--directory /usr/local/bin \
--extract \
--gzip \
--strip-components=2 \
shellbase-$REL/lib/base.shVerify /usr/local/bin appears in your PATH.
Then source the framework from your script:
#!/bin/sh
# File not following:
# shellcheck disable=SC1091
. base.sh
log I\'m using the shellbase.The framework provides three loggers:
log for information,
loge for errors, and
logw for warnings.
Each logger prints to standard error.
In non-interactive mode, each also appends the message to the log file under
a single lowercase level tag: i for information, e for errors, and w
for warnings.
Try shellbase without installation:
#!/bin/sh
REL=0.9.20261010
SRC=https://github.com/rdavid/shellbase/archive/refs/tags/v$REL.tar.gz
eval "$(
curl --location --silent $SRC |
tar \
--extract \
--gzip \
--to-stdout \
shellbase-$REL/lib/base.sh
)"
log I\'m using the shellbase.prettytable example:
. base.sh
{
printf 'ID\tNAME\tTITLE\n'
printf '123456789\tJohn Foo\tDirector\n'
printf '12\tMike Bar\tEngineer\n'
} | prettytableOutput:
+-----------+----------+----------+
|ID |NAME |TITLE |
+-----------+----------+----------+
|123456789 |John Foo |Director |
|12 |Mike Bar |Engineer |
+-----------+----------+----------+The project uses Daniel J. Bernstein’s build system, redo.
You can install Sergey Matveev’s goredo implementation.
redo lint applies the following linters to the source files:
actionlint,
checkmake,
conform,
gitleaks,
hadolint,
reuse,
shellcheck,
shfmt,
typos,
vale,
yamllint,
zizmor.
redo test runs the unit tests against each installed shell.
redo test-container repeats the tests inside the supported container
images.
The project uses David Rabkin's goredoer to build
goredo.
A run of redo lint shows the conventions in practice: commands echo
before they run, missing linters stay silent instead of warning, a failure
doesn’t stop the rest, and the script’s only line of stdout is the bare
OK that redo reads as the target.
$ redo lint
20260727-14:02:01 » dash -n ./lint.do
20260727-14:02:01 » mksh -n ./lint.do
20260727-14:02:02 » shellcheck ./*.do ./app/* ./lib/*
# actionlint, checkmake, hadolint - not installed, nothing logged
20260727-14:02:04 shfmt failed, err=1.
20260727-14:02:05 » yamllint ./.github/*.yml ./.github/workflows/*.yml
OKshellbase belongs to David Rabkin and uses a
Zero-Clause BSD license.