Bash

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Bash is unavoidable in DevOps work — CI/CD pipelines, container entrypoints, system init scripts, and quick automation all end up as shell scripts eventually. Knowing how to write it well saves a lot of pain.

Tooling

Linting: ShellCheck: catches common mistakes and anti-patterns. Run it in CI, or install the IDE plugin. Most of what it flags is genuinely wrong.

IDE: Any editor works. ShellCheck integrations exist for VS Code, IntelliJ, Vim, and most others.

Good habits

Set these at the top of every non-trivial script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

-e — exit on error
-u — error on unset variables
-o pipefail: catch errors in pipes, not just the last command

Use shellcheck before committing. Most Bash bugs it catches are subtle and only surface under specific conditions in production.

When to reach for Python instead

When the script grows beyond ~50 lines, needs associative arrays, JSON parsing, or HTTP calls — switch to Python. Bash is great glue; it’s a poor application language.

Resources

Python

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Python is my scripting and automation language of choice. I reach for it when Bash starts getting unwieldy — data processing, API interactions, infrastructure automation scripts, and one-off tooling.

2024 note: For anything beyond quick scripts I’m increasingly reaching for Go instead. Better performance, a single compiled binary, and stronger typing make Go a more honest choice for tools that end up running in production. Python still wins for data work and anything where the ecosystem matters (ML, pandas, etc.).

Tooling

IDE: PyCharm: JetBrains’ Python IDE. Good for larger projects. For scripts and smaller work, IntelliJ IDEA with the Python plugin does the job.

Formatting: Black: opinionated formatter, no configuration needed.

Linting: Ruff: extremely fast linter and formatter, replacing Flake8 + isort in most setups.

Dependency management: uv: modern, fast package manager replacing pip/virtualenv for most workflows.

Where I use it

Infrastructure automation and scripting alongside Ansible
Data processing and log analysis
CLI tooling for internal workflows
Quick API clients and integration scripts

Scripting on Backend Engineering Strategy Tools

Bash

Tooling

Good habits

When to reach for Python instead

Resources

Python

Tooling

Where I use it

Resources