So zsh is basically compatible with bash. But what about “proper” languages like Ruby, JavaScript, & Java?
Part of me kind of hates shell scripting, especially as you get into hundreds of lines, or thousands of lines. I’m definitely of the mind to “just” write it in a real programming language. Yet I still appreciate shell scripting for its exceptional & direct get-it-done nature.
Ruby
Well, if you’re using Open3.popen3, you’re passing in a single command, not a pipeline. What you do with the wait_thread.value is up to you.
You can start up a pipeline with Open3.pipeline_rw and friends, but the logic is all up to you: you can .join each wait_thread and do with the .value what you wish.
So: maximum flexibility, but kind of low convenience, though. You don’t need bash, which can definitely be a strength.
The other options don’t seem as great. If you use backticks, you do get output, but don’t get exit status. If you use system(...), you do get exit status, but you don’t get output. Hmm.
JavaScript (zx)
Well, zx uses bash by default. You can specify other shells
$.shell = '/bin/zsh'
...
zx --shell /bin/zsh script.js
but what about -euxo pipefail ?
$.prefix
Specifies the command that will be prefixed to all commands run.
Default is set -euo pipefail;.
Well, they are just that good, I guess. They think of everything.
Java
Okay, so jbang only really lets you run the Java, it doesn’t help much in the way of subshells / pipelines / anything like that, as far as I can tell.
Enter ProcessBuilder. Like Ruby, it’s got a helper for starting up a pipeline: ProcessBuilder.startPipeline(…). You can get a CompletableFuture from .onExit() to read the .exitValue() and do with what you want.
So it’s basically the same interface as Ruby: maximum flexibility, but bash-less, so not convenient for one-liners.
Overall
I think zx is the best solution I would still call “scripting”. I guess it’s subjective, the line between a script and a program.
I guess I left out a lot of other languages, but I’m willing to bet they fall on the Ruby/Java side of things (which I’d describe as manual pipelining, with helpers). I am curious if there are any close-equivalents to zx that build directly on bash.