Testing a bash shell script [duplicate]

Question

Can someone explain how to test for a bash shell script?

For example i've got a .sh file with this code in it...

#!/bin/sh

for file in *.txt; do
    mv "$file" "`basename $file .txt`.doc"
done

How do I write a test for it? Like in Java you've got unit testing where you write code like assertEquals to test the code gives the desired output.

check these --> stackoverflow.com/questions/1315624/… , stackoverflow.com/questions/1339416/testing-bash-scripts — Chaitanya
– Chaitanya, Commented Mar 21, 2011 at 19:49
This is better: mv "$file" "$(basename "$file" .txt).doc" or mv "$file" "${file%*.txt}.doc" — Dennis Williamson
– Dennis Williamson, Commented Mar 22, 2011 at 1:10
I wrote an article about this on my personal website here: GabrielStaples.com: How do you write, import, use, and test libraries in Bash? See, for example, my _assert_eq() function. — Gabriel Staples
– Gabriel Staples, Commented Apr 23 at 20:39

Mark · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-20 20:06:01Z

18

Try this out: assert.sh

source "./assert.sh"

local expected actual
expected="Hello"
actual="World!"
assert_eq "$expected" "$actual" "not equivalent!"
# => x Hello == World :: not equivalent!

answered May 20, 2017 at 20:06

Mark

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Mark Nenadov · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 19:49:16Z

11

You can do asserts in Bash. Check out this from the Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide:

http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/debugging.html#ASSERT

answered Mar 21, 2011 at 19:49

Mark Nenadov

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2 Comments

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

Please don't encourage the ABS as a reference -- as a rule, it's undermaintained, and makes a habit of showcasing bad-practice examples. The Wooledge wiki and the bash-hackers wiki (and of course the official manual) are much better resources.

Kevin Whitefoot Over a year ago

@CharlesDuffy Generally good advice but not very helpful in this case as you haven't pointed at an alternative and ABS does at least provide an assert script whereas neither the Wooledge wiki (mywiki.wooledge.org/…) nor the Bash Hackers Wiki (wiki-dev.bash-hackers.org/start?do=search&id=assert) contain any discussion of assertions at all.

geekosaur · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 20:01:41Z

4

I'd add an echo in front of the mv to verify that the right commands are being created, for starters. (Always a good idea with commands that make possibly difficult to undo changes.)

Some possibly useful resources:

shUnit2 — xUnit framework for script unit testing
Bash IDE for Vim
Bash debugger

edited Mar 21, 2011 at 20:01

answered Mar 21, 2011 at 19:48

geekosaur

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2 Comments

Mr Teeth Over a year ago

Alright, thanks. But i'm trying to create a .sh file that test that whole code.

geekosaur Over a year ago

@Mr Teeth: added some links above. That said, shell scripts are a little harder to unit test effectively because almost everything boils down to invoking external commands. It's almost more sensible and useful to test those commands, and test the script itself by stubbing external modifications out with echo, as a result.

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