Labrador Bash library. Collection of functions and libraries that I deem useful for working with Bash.

• Features
• Documentation
• Conventions
• License

Kindly feel free to have converstations and ask questions on Github discussion and report bugs using Github issue.

Check https://kamilcuk.github.io/L_lib/ for the generated documentation.

The library is one file. Download the latest release from github and put in your PATH:

mkdir -vp ~/.local/bin/
curl -o ~/.local/bin/L_lib.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kamilcuk/L_lib/refs/heads/v0/bin/L_lib.sh
export PATH=~/.local/bin:$PATH

You can use the library with:

. L_lib.sh

You can test the library without installing with:

( . <(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kamilcuk/L_lib/refs/heads/v0/bin/L_lib.sh) && L_argparse -- -v -- arg ---- -v world hello && echo "$arg" "$v" )

Below is some list with some of the library features. The library contains much more.

• argument parsing in Bash with short, long optiong, subparsers, sub-function support and shell completion like L_argparse
• logging library with levels and configurable output and filtering like L_log_configure L_info L_logrun L_run
• pretty function stack printing usually on ERR trap like L_print_traceback
• execute an action on EXIT, any terminating signal or RETURN trap of any function like L_finally
• create temporary directory and cd to it for the duration of a function with auto removal after return like L_with_cd L_with_cd_tmpdir
• create unidirectional connected two file descriptors like L_pipe
• create and manage multiple coprocesses with separate file descriptors for stdin and stdout like L_proc_popen L_proc_communicate L_proc_kill
• temporary enable or disable set -x for the duration of a command like L_setx L_unsetx
• easily sort a Bash arrays containing any characters like L_sort
• failure handling utilities like L_assert L_die L_check L_panic
• variables holding color codes depending on terminal support like L_color_detect $L_RED $L_BLUE
• checking Bash features and version like $L_BASH_VERSION $L_HAS_BASH4_0 $L_HAS_COMPGEN_V $L_HAS_WAIT_N
• waiting on multiple PIDs with a timeout and collecting all exit codes like L_wait
• simplify storing exit status of a command into a variable like L_exit_to L_exit_to_10
• help with path operations, with PATH or PYTHONPATH manipulation like L_stem L_dir_is_empty L_path_append L_relative_to
• string utilities like L_strip L_strupper L_strstr L_html_escape L_urlencode
• split string without remote execution and understant $'' sequences like L_str_split
• templating output like L_percent_format L_fstring
• JSON escape like L_json_escape
• Cache commands execution with ttl in memory or file like L_cache L_cache_decorate
• Easy writing function utilities by supporting -v <var> option or extracting comment before function like L_handle_v_scalar L_func_help L_func_usage_error L_decorate
• all supports any Bash versions from 3.2 to latest with portability funtions like L_readarray L_epochrealtime_usec L_compgen

• L_* prefix for public symbols.
• _L_* prefix for private symbols, including local variables in functions taking a namereference.
• Upper case used for global scope readonly variables.
• Lower case used for functions and user mutable variables
• Snake case for everything.
• The option -v <var> is used to store the result in a variable instead of printing it.
  • This follows the convention of printf -v <var>.
  • Without the -v option, the function outputs the elements on lines to stdout.
  • Associated function with _v suffix store the result in a hardcoded scratch variable L_v.

LGPL