<p align="center"><strong><a href="https://github.com/modernish/modernish/releases">Releases</a></strong></p> <p align="center"><strong>For code examples, see <a href="https://github.com/modernish/modernish/blob/master/EXAMPLES.md"> <code>EXAMPLES.md</code></a> and <a href="https://github.com/modernish/modernish/tree/master/share/doc/modernish/examples"> <code>share/doc/modernish/examples</code></a> </strong></p>

modernish – harness the shell

• Sick of quoting hell and split/glob pitfalls?
• Tired of brittle shell scripts going haywire and causing damage?
• Mystified by line noise commands like [, [[, (( ?
• Is scripting basic things just too hard?
• Ever wish that find were a built-in shell loop?
• Do you want your script to work on nearly any shell on any Unix-like OS?

Modernish is a library for shell script programming which provides features like safer variable and command expansion, new language constructs for loop iteration, and much more. Modernish programs are shell programs; the new constructs are mixed with shell syntax so that the programmer can take advantage of the best of both.

There is no compiled code to install, as modernish is written entirely in the shell language. It can be deployed in embedded or multi-user systems in which new binary executables may not be introduced for security reasons, and is portable among numerous shell implementations. The installer can also bundle a reduced copy of the library with your scripts, so they can run portably with a known version of modernish without requiring prior installation.

Join us and help breathe some new life into the shell! We are looking for testers, early adopters, and developers to join us. Download the latest release or check out the very latest development code from the master branch. Read through the documentation below. Play with the example scripts and write your own. Try to break the library and send reports of breakage.

Table of contents

• Getting started
• Two basic forms of a modernish program
  • Simple form
  • Portable form
• Interactive use
• Non-interactive command line use
  • Non-interactive usage examples
• Shell capability detection
• Names and identifiers
  • Internal namespace
  • Modernish system constants
  • Control character, whitespace and shell-safe character constants
• Reliable emergency halt
• Low-level shell utilities
  • Outputting strings
  • Legibility aliases: not, so, forever
  • Enhanced exit
  • chdir
  • insubshell
  • isset
  • setstatus
• Testing numbers, strings and files
  • Integer number arithmetic tests and operations
    • The arithmetic command let
    • Arithmetic shortcuts
  • String and file tests
    • String tests
      • Unary string tests
      • Binary string matching tests
      • Multi-matching option
    • File type tests
    • File comparison tests
    • File status tests
    • I/O tests
    • File permission tests
• The stack
  • The shell options stack
  • The trap stack
• Modules
  • use safe
    • Why the safe mode?
    • How the safe mode works
    • Important notes for safe mode
    • Extra options for the safe mode
  • use var/loop
    • Simple repeat loop
    • BASIC-style arithmetic for loop
    • C-style arithmetic for loop
    • Enumerative for/select loop with safe split/glob
    • The find loop
      • Available options
      • Available find-expression operands
      • Picking a find utility
      • Compatibility mode for obsolete find utilities
      • find loop usage examples
    • Creating your own loop
  • use var/local
    • Important var/local usage notes
  • use var/arith
    • Arithmetic operator shortcuts
    • Arithmetic comparison shortcuts
  • use var/assign
  • use var/readf
  • use var/shellquote
    • shellquote
    • shellquoteparams
  • use var/stack
    • use var/stack/extra
    • use var/stack/trap
      • Trap stack compatibility considerations
      • The new DIE pseudosignal
  • use var/string
    • use var/string/touplow
    • use var/string/trim
    • use var/string/replacein
    • use var/string/append
  • use var/unexport
  • use var/genoptparser
  • use sys/base
    • use sys/base/mktemp
    • use sys/base/readlink
    • use sys/base/rev
    • use sys/base/seq
      • Differences with GNU and BSD seq
    • use sys/base/shuf
    • use sys/base/tac
    • use sys/base/which
    • use sys/base/yes
  • use sys/cmd
    • use sys/cmd/extern
    • use sys/cmd/harden
      • Important note on variable assignments
      • Hardening while allowing for broken pipes
      • Tracing the execution of hardened commands
      • Simple tracing of commands
    • use sys/cmd/mapr
      • Differences from mapfile
      • Differences from xargs
    • use sys/cmd/procsubst
    • use sys/cmd/source
  • use sys/dir
    • use sys/dir/countfiles
    • use sys/dir/mkcd
  • use sys/term
    • use sys/term/putr
    • use sys/term/readkey
• Appendix A: List of shell cap IDs
  • Capabilities
  • Quirks
  • Bugs
  • Warning IDs
• Appendix B: Regression test suite
  • [Difference between capability detection and regressio