Debugging a Bash script involves several techniques. The first is using the ‘-x’ option when running the script, which prints each command to stdout before execution, allowing you to trace the program’s flow. Another technique is utilizing ‘set -e’, which causes the script to exit immediately if any command exits with a non-zero status, useful for catching errors early.
You can also use ‘trap’ commands that allow handling of unexpected situations or errors. For instance, ‘trap “echo Error at about $LINENO” ERR’ will print an error message including the line number where an error occurred.
For more complex scripts, tools like ShellCheck can be used. It’s a static analysis tool that checks your script for issues like syntax errors, unused variables, and common mistakes.
