Production checklist

Capstone: shipping Bash scripts that teams trust in CI and on servers. Combine lessons into habits—readable, tested, portable where promised.

Script checklist

1. Shebang #!/usr/bin/env bash (or sh if POSIX-only)
2. set -euo pipefail and quote variables
3. Meaningful exit codes and stderr messages
4. No secrets in repo—use CI secret stores
5. Document required env vars and tools in README
6. Test on clean CI runner, not only your laptop

Operations habits

# Log with timestamps
log() { echo "$(date -Iseconds) $*"; }
log "deploy started"
# Idempotent mkdir
mkdir -p /var/app/releases

Logs go to stdout/stderr for collectors—structure helps on-call engineers.

Where to go next

Deepen Git hooks and CI, explore server topics when available, and keep Python/Go services for business logic. This Bash track gave you the terminal glue—use it to automate safely, not to replace proper application code.

Track summary: 36 read-focused lessons—copy commands locally, master quoting and exit codes, compose GNU tools, script with set -euo pipefail, and integrate with Git/CI. No in-browser runner by design; your machine is the lab.

Important interview questions and answers

1. Q: Minimum safety flags?
   A: Often set -euo pipefail plus quoting and traps for temp files.
2. Q: When not Bash?
   A: Complex APIs, heavy data science, or large apps—use a full language and keep Bash as glue.

Self-check

1. List three items from the production script checklist.
2. What track should you study next for version control integration?

Tip: Capstone: strict mode, quoted vars, tested CI, secrets outside Git. Next: deepen Git and server topics.