bash-linux_skill

Overview

This skill collects practical Bash and Linux terminal patterns for daily macOS/Linux work. It focuses on command chaining, file and process management, text processing, environment variables, networking, scripting templates, and robust error handling. Use it to speed up repetitive shell tasks and write safer scripts.

How this skill works

The skill summarizes common commands, operators, and idioms so you can copy or adapt them directly in a terminal or script. It explains what to use for listing files, searching text, managing processes, piping data, and handling errors. It also includes a minimal script template with safe options (set -euo pipefail) and useful helper functions for logging and cleanup.

When to use it

• Running multi-step commands reliably (use && and ||)
• Searching and transforming text across files (grep, sed, awk)
• Writing portable shell scripts with error handling and traps
• Managing processes, ports, and background jobs on a developer machine
• Debugging and inspecting system state (disk usage, network, environment vars)

Best practices

• Quote variables to avoid word splitting and globbing ("$var")
• Use set -euo pipefail in scripts to fail fast and avoid silent errors
• Prefer command -v to check for availability before use
• Use traps for cleanup and set -x only while debugging
• Chain with && for dependent steps and || for fallback actions

Example use cases

• Install dependencies and start a dev server: npm install && npm run dev
• Find and replace across files: grep -rl "TODO" src/ | xargs sed -i 's/old/new/g'
• Free a port used by a process: kill -9 $(lsof -t -i :3000)
• Create a robust script: include set -euo pipefail, log helpers, and a trap for cleanup
• Stream logs and search in real time: tail -f log.txt | grep -i ERROR