Bash automation for Ubuntu Server

Support and Help
1

Hello,

I developed Bash scripts to automate the installation and configuration of open-source software (i.e., LinuxHA in Launchpad and LinuxSOHO in Launchpad). I want to make sure the syntax of these scripts is perfect so I can use them as teaching tools to educate people about Ubuntu Server.

I need to know if there is anything misconfigured with my Bash syntax.

If you find a bug in LinuxHA or LinuxSOHO, please submit a bug report.

Kind regards,

Travis Bean

2

Hi @tbean74 !

The answer is likely Shellcheck, which is installable on your Ubuntu system with a simple apt install shellcheck. Then run it against your code.

shellcheck LinuxHA.sh

For example:

$ shellcheck LinuxHA.sh

In LinuxHA.sh line 98:
if [ $(id | awk '{ print $1 }') != "uid=0(root)" ]; then
     ^------------------------^ SC2046 (warning): Quote this to prevent word splitting.


In LinuxHA.sh line 107:
ping -q -w 1 -c 1 $(ip r | grep default | cut -d' ' -f 3) > /dev/null
                  ^-- SC2046 (warning): Quote this to prevent word splitting.


In LinuxHA.sh line 108:
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
     ^-- SC2181 (style): Check exit code directly with e.g. 'if ! mycmd;', not indirectly with $?.

That’s just the first few lines, there are a few more:

$ shellcheck LinuxHA.sh | grep SC | wc -l
436

You can also add a shellcheck extension to VSCode which can check while you type, and offer solutions.

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(by the way, I have moved this post to the support category)

3 Likes
3

I meant to say, “I need to know if there is anything misconfigured with my Ubuntu Server configuration files.”

For the time being, I removed the most relevant bugs with Shellcheck. I will try to remove the rest of what Shellcheck flags when I have the time.

What I am most concerned about is that every time a new version of Ubuntu Server is released, some of the underlying configuration files change for the software packages I have integrated into my LinuxHA and LinuxSOHO scripts.

It would be nice if there was a program developed that could detect every time the configuration file of a software package changed.

In the meantime, it sure would be nice if people would test my LinuxHA and LinuxSOHO scripts and let me know if anything is misconfigured and broken.

4

This is scriptable by using git on your /etc directory (and other dirs that carry configs FWIW) … just make an automatic commit every time your system updates and you will have a history of commits you can walk through backwards if needed and check the diffs …