Shell scripting patterns - a personal perspective

It is often said that no serious development project should ever use shell script.

While it is certainly true that there are some serious shortcomings is the bash strain of shells, this is not to say that these shortcomings cannot be overcome. Like so much else in programming, it is mostly a matter of finding good patterns that contain those shortcomings.

I want to write something on this matter, so I'm planning a series of blog posts on important patterns that help in keeping bash shell scripts readable and maintainable while keeping a reasonable performance. With luck, they will have something for you as well.