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0 pointsBeltalowda3y ago0 comments

It's sometimes a bit convenient if you want to read file from the directory the script is stored in. Overall I found it more confusing and awkward than anything else, and prefer setting it explicitly. It's still okay for a quick script though, but as general "best practices" advice: meh.

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afidrya3y ago

I also think so. Often script needs to access a file in actual current dir (for example a config file) or process files with relative paths supplied by user and changing working dir makes this hard.

I think an easier way is to find script's location and construct paths for accessing script dependencies, for example (works on Linux & macOS):

  script_root="$(cd "$(dirname "$(readlink "$([[ "${OSTYPE}" == linux* ]] && echo "-f")" "$0")")"; pwd)"
  source "${script_root}/common.sh"
  source "${script_root}/packages.sh"
  source "${script_root}/colors.sh"

efrecon3y ago

I agree, getting to know where a script "comes from" can be complex though. You can `readlink -f` (or equivalent) in many cases, but when implementing a library this might not be entirely practical. I have had to rely on this ugly if-statement [1] for that purpose.

  [1]: https://github.com/Mitigram/mg.sh/blob/cbeb206d67fe08be2107deee50acf877f990dbdf/bootstrap.sh#L6

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