Debugging (Bash)

Here is a way to include a debugging option in Bash scripts, that isn't too obtrusive - I think it will be part of my 'personal coding standards' (2023.09).

Is the juice worth the squeeze?

The dilemma with adding debugging options:

Does the added functionality really help, or does it only make the script or program more complex?

And like more often in life, the answer probably is: It depends.

However, it surely helps if the debugging functionality is really simple and has a little a footprint as possible.

Implementation

So far, debugging only involves sending data to the console.

Global variable $debug

• Use a global variable $debug as switch, rather than using command line switches
• I hope that the name $debug isn't too generic to cause problems.

Test

• Test to decide whether debugging is enabled: [ "$debug" ]
• This means, that debugging is enabled whenever this test evaluates to true. Any real value will evaluate to true
• Disable debugging through e.g.: unset debug (also ok: debug="".

To illustrate this:

debug="blub"
[ "$debug" ] && echo "Debugging is enabled"   # True

debug=0
[ "$debug" ] && echo "Debugging is enabled"   # True

unset debug
[ "$debug" ] && echo "Debugging is enabled"   # False

Display debugging info

When executing only one debugging command:

[ "$debug" ] && echo "Debugging is enabled" 

When executing multiple commands, you can put them within (), which instantiates a subshell or within {}, which doesn't. I prefer the latter approach. In that case:

• Include a ; after each command, including the last command (or a newline, as in the following examples)
• Don't forget the spaces around the curly braces.

E.g.:

[ "$debug" ] && { echo ""; echo "### assign_site_array"; } 

This can also be extended over multiple lines. E.g.:

[ "$debug" ] && {
   echo ""
   echo "### assign_site_array"
}

or

[ "$debug" ] &&
{
   echo ""
   echo "### assign_site_array"
}