- Bash scripts can fail silently, leading to undetected backup failures and other issues, especially in automated environments.
- Use 'set -euo pipefail' as a foundation to stop on errors, undefined variables, and pipe failures, but be aware of its limitations.
- Implement 'trap' for cleanup to ensure temporary files and resources are removed regardless of how the script exits.
- Always quote variables to prevent whitespace splitting and globbing, avoiding common bugs in production.
- Validate dependencies, arguments, and environment before acting to prevent failures in different setups.
- Write detailed logs with timestamps and context to aid troubleshooting, especially during off-hours incidents.
- Use file locking with 'flock' to prevent concurrent execution and data corruption in scheduled scripts.
- Utilize ShellCheck for static analysis and consider Bats for testing to catch errors before deployment.
- Conduct a final pre-production check including flags, cleanup, quoting, validation, logging, concurrency protection, and ShellCheck results.
- Share experiences and tips in communities to learn from common bash script mistakes and improve reliability.