How best to include other scripts

Question

The way you would normally include a script is with  source   eg   main sh      bin bash  source incl sh  echo  The main script    incl sh   echo  The included script    The output of executing    main sh  is   The included script The main script       Now  if you attempt to execute that shell script from another location  it can t find the include unless it s in your path   What s a good way to ensure that your script can find the include script  especially if for instance  the script needs to be portable

User · Answer

An alternative to   scriptPath   dirname  0    is   scriptPath   0          the advantage being not having the dependence on dirname  which is not a built-in command  and not always available in emulators

User · Answer

You can also use   PWD   pwd  source   PWD inc sh

User · Answer

According man hier suitable place for script includes is  usr local lib       usr local lib      Files associated with locally installed programs    Personally I prefer  usr local lib bash includes for includes  There is bash-helper lib for including libs in that way      bin bash     usr local lib bash includes bash-helpers sh  include api-client    exit 1                     include shared functions include mysql-status query-builder    exit 1     include script functions    include script functions with status message include mysql-status process-checker  status  process-checker        exit 1 include mysql-status nonexists  status  nonexists        exit 1

User · Answer

Shell Script Loader is my solution for this   It provides a function named include   that can be called many times in many scripts to refer a single script but will only load the script once  The function can accept complete paths or partial paths  script is searched in a search path   A similar function named load   is also provided that will load the scripts unconditionally   It works for bash  ksh  pd ksh and zsh with optimized scripts for each one of them  and other shells that are generically compatible with the original sh like ash  dash  heirloom sh  etc   through a universal script that automatically optimizes its functions depending on the features the shell can provide    Fowarded example   start sh  This is an optional starter script  Placing the startup methods here is just a convenience and can be placed in the main script instead  This script is also not needed if the scripts are to be compiled      bin sh    load loader sh   loader sh    include directories to search path loader addpath  usr lib sh deps source    load main script load main sh   main sh  include a sh include b sh  echo  ---- main sh ----     remove loader from shellspace since   we no longer need it loader finish    main procedures go from here          a sh  include main sh include a sh include b sh  echo  ---- a sh ----    b sh  include main sh include a sh include b sh  echo  ---- b sh ----    output   ---- b sh ---- ---- a sh ---- ---- main sh ----   What s best is scripts based on it may also be compiled to form a single script with the available compiler   Here s a project that uses it  http   sourceforge net p playshell code ci master tree   It can run portably with or without compiling the scripts  Compiling to produce a single script can also happen  and is helpful during installation   I also created a simpler prototype for any conservative party that may want to have a brief idea of how an implementation script works  https   sourceforge net p loader code ci base tree loader-include-prototype bash  It s small and anyone can just include the code in their main script if they want to if their code is intended to run with Bash 4 0 or newer  and it also doesn t use eval

User · Answer

Most of the answers I saw here seem to overcomplicate things  This method has always worked reliably for me  FULLPATH   readlink -f  0  INCPATH   FULLPATH      INCPATH will hold the complete path of the script excluding the script filename  regardless of how the script is called  by  PATH  relative or absolute   After that  one only needs to do this to include files in the same directory     INCPATH file to include sh  Reference  TecPorto   Location independent includes

User · Answer

Steve s reply is definitely the correct technique but it should be refactored so that your installpath variable is in a separate environment script where all such declarations are made   Then all scripts source that script and should installpath change  you only need to change it in one location  Makes things more  er  futureproof  God I hate that word   -   BTW You should really refer to the variable using   installpath  when using it in the way shown in your example       installpath  incl sh   If the braces are left out  some shells will try and expand the variable  installpath incl sh

User · Answer

Shell Script Loader is my solution for this   It provides a function named include   that can be called many times in many scripts to refer a single script but will only load the script once  The function can accept complete paths or partial paths  script is searched in a search path   A similar function named load   is also provided that will load the scripts unconditionally   It works for bash  ksh  pd ksh and zsh with optimized scripts for each one of them  and other shells that are generically compatible with the original sh like ash  dash  heirloom sh  etc   through a universal script that automatically optimizes its functions depending on the features the shell can provide    Fowarded example   start sh  This is an optional starter script  Placing the startup methods here is just a convenience and can be placed in the main script instead  This script is also not needed if the scripts are to be compiled      bin sh    load loader sh   loader sh    include directories to search path loader addpath  usr lib sh deps source    load main script load main sh   main sh  include a sh include b sh  echo  ---- main sh ----     remove loader from shellspace since   we no longer need it loader finish    main procedures go from here          a sh  include main sh include a sh include b sh  echo  ---- a sh ----    b sh  include main sh include a sh include b sh  echo  ---- b sh ----    output   ---- b sh ---- ---- a sh ---- ---- main sh ----   What s best is scripts based on it may also be compiled to form a single script with the available compiler   Here s a project that uses it  http   sourceforge net p playshell code ci master tree   It can run portably with or without compiling the scripts  Compiling to produce a single script can also happen  and is helpful during installation   I also created a simpler prototype for any conservative party that may want to have a brief idea of how an implementation script works  https   sourceforge net p loader code ci base tree loader-include-prototype bash  It s small and anyone can just include the code in their main script if they want to if their code is intended to run with Bash 4 0 or newer  and it also doesn t use eval

User · Answer

You need to specify the location of the other scripts  there is no other way around it   I d recommend a configurable variable at the top of your script      bin bash installpath  where your scripts are     installpath incl sh  echo  The main script    Alternatively  you can insist that the user maintain an environment variable indicating where your program home is at  like PROG HOME or somesuch   This can be supplied for the user automatically by creating a script with that information in  etc profile d   which will be sourced every time a user logs in

User · Answer

This should work reliably   source relative      local dir    BASH SOURCE          -z   dir      amp  amp  dir   PWD   source   dir  1     source relative incl sh

User · Answer

Steve s reply is definitely the correct technique but it should be refactored so that your installpath variable is in a separate environment script where all such declarations are made   Then all scripts source that script and should installpath change  you only need to change it in one location  Makes things more  er  futureproof  God I hate that word   -   BTW You should really refer to the variable using   installpath  when using it in the way shown in your example       installpath  incl sh   If the braces are left out  some shells will try and expand the variable  installpath incl sh

User · Answer

I d suggest that you create a setenv script whose sole purpose is to provide locations for various components across your system   All other scripts would then source this script so that all locations are common across all scripts using the setenv script   This is very useful when running cronjobs  You get a minimal environment when running cron  but if you make all cron scripts first include the setenv script then you are able to control and synchronise the environment that you want the cronjobs to execute in   We used such a technique on our build monkey that was used for continuous integration across a project of about 2 000 kSLOC

User · Answer

Using source or  0 will not give you the real path of your script  You could use the process id of the script to retrieve its real path  ls -l        proc    fd              grep         255 - gt                sed -e       s     - gt        I am using this script and it has always served me well

User · Answer

You need to specify the location of the other scripts  there is no other way around it   I d recommend a configurable variable at the top of your script      bin bash installpath  where your scripts are     installpath incl sh  echo  The main script    Alternatively  you can insist that the user maintain an environment variable indicating where your program home is at  like PROG HOME or somesuch   This can be supplied for the user automatically by creating a script with that information in  etc profile d   which will be sourced every time a user logs in

User · Answer

An alternative to   scriptPath   dirname  0    is   scriptPath   0          the advantage being not having the dependence on dirname  which is not a built-in command  and not always available in emulators

User · Answer

I know I am late to the party  but this should work no matter how you start the script and uses builtins exclusively   DIR    BASH SOURCE      if      -d   DIR      then DIR   PWD   fi     DIR incl sh      DIR main sh       dot  command is an alias to source   PWD is the Path for the Working Directory  BASH SOURCE is an array variable whose members are the source filenames    string substring  strips shortest match of  substring from back of  string

User · Answer

I d suggest that you create a setenv script whose sole purpose is to provide locations for various components across your system   All other scripts would then source this script so that all locations are common across all scripts using the setenv script   This is very useful when running cronjobs  You get a minimal environment when running cron  but if you make all cron scripts first include the setenv script then you are able to control and synchronise the environment that you want the cronjobs to execute in   We used such a technique on our build monkey that was used for continuous integration across a project of about 2 000 kSLOC

User · Answer

You can also use   PWD   pwd  source   PWD inc sh

User · Answer

Of course  to each their own  but I think the block below is pretty solid  I believe this involves the  best  way to find a directory  and the  best  way to call another bash script   scriptdir  dirname   BASH SOURCE   source  scriptdir incl sh  echo  The main script    So this may be the  best  way to include other scripts  This is based off another  best  answer that tells a bash script where it is stored

User · Answer

I tend to make my scripts all be relative to one another   That way I can use dirname      bin sh  my dir    dirname   0       my dir other script sh

User · Answer

we just need to find out the folder where our incl sh and main sh is stored  just change your main sh with this   main sh     bin bash  SCRIPT NAME   basename  0  SCRIPT DIR    echo  0  sed  s  SCRIPT NAME  g    source  SCRIPT DIR incl sh  echo  The main script

User · Answer

If it is in the same directory you can use dirname  0      bin bash  source   dirname  0  incl sh  echo  The main script

User · Answer

I think the best way to do this is to use the Chris Boran s way  BUT you should compute MY DIR this way     bin sh MY DIR   dirname   readlink -f  0    MY DIR other script sh  To quote the man pages for readlink   readlink - display value of a symbolic link         -f  --canonicalize         canonicalize  by following every symlink in every component of the given          name recursively  all but the last component must exist   I ve never encountered a use case where MY DIR is not correctly computed  If you access your script through a symlink in your  PATH it works

User · Answer

An alternative to   scriptPath   dirname  0    is   scriptPath   0          the advantage being not having the dependence on dirname  which is not a built-in command  and not always available in emulators

User · Answer

Most of the answers I saw here seem to overcomplicate things  This method has always worked reliably for me  FULLPATH   readlink -f  0  INCPATH   FULLPATH      INCPATH will hold the complete path of the script excluding the script filename  regardless of how the script is called  by  PATH  relative or absolute   After that  one only needs to do this to include files in the same directory     INCPATH file to include sh  Reference  TecPorto   Location independent includes

User · Answer

Of course  to each their own  but I think the block below is pretty solid  I believe this involves the  best  way to find a directory  and the  best  way to call another bash script   scriptdir  dirname   BASH SOURCE   source  scriptdir incl sh  echo  The main script    So this may be the  best  way to include other scripts  This is based off another  best  answer that tells a bash script where it is stored

User · Answer

I know I am late to the party  but this should work no matter how you start the script and uses builtins exclusively   DIR    BASH SOURCE      if      -d   DIR      then DIR   PWD   fi     DIR incl sh      DIR main sh       dot  command is an alias to source   PWD is the Path for the Working Directory  BASH SOURCE is an array variable whose members are the source filenames    string substring  strips shortest match of  substring from back of  string

User · Answer

SRC   cd   dirname   0    pwd  source    SRC  incl sh

User · Answer

Using source or  0 will not give you the real path of your script  You could use the process id of the script to retrieve its real path  ls -l        proc    fd              grep         255 - gt                sed -e       s     - gt        I am using this script and it has always served me well

User · Answer

Steve s reply is definitely the correct technique but it should be refactored so that your installpath variable is in a separate environment script where all such declarations are made   Then all scripts source that script and should installpath change  you only need to change it in one location  Makes things more  er  futureproof  God I hate that word   -   BTW You should really refer to the variable using   installpath  when using it in the way shown in your example       installpath  incl sh   If the braces are left out  some shells will try and expand the variable  installpath incl sh

User · Answer

This should work reliably   source relative      local dir    BASH SOURCE          -z   dir      amp  amp  dir   PWD   source   dir  1     source relative incl sh

User · Answer

You need to specify the location of the other scripts  there is no other way around it   I d recommend a configurable variable at the top of your script      bin bash installpath  where your scripts are     installpath incl sh  echo  The main script    Alternatively  you can insist that the user maintain an environment variable indicating where your program home is at  like PROG HOME or somesuch   This can be supplied for the user automatically by creating a script with that information in  etc profile d   which will be sourced every time a user logs in

User · Answer

If it is in the same directory you can use dirname  0      bin bash  source   dirname  0  incl sh  echo  The main script

User · Answer

I put all my startup scripts in a  bashrc d directory  This is a common technique in such places as  etc profile d  etc   while read file  do source    file    done  lt  lt HERE   find   HOME   bashrc d -type f  HERE   The problem with the solution using globbing     for file in   HOME   bashrc d   sh  do source   file  done      is you might have a file list which is  too long   An approach like      find   HOME   bashrc d -type f   while read file  do source   file   done      runs but doesn t change the environment as desired

User · Answer

You need to specify the location of the other scripts  there is no other way around it   I d recommend a configurable variable at the top of your script      bin bash installpath  where your scripts are     installpath incl sh  echo  The main script    Alternatively  you can insist that the user maintain an environment variable indicating where your program home is at  like PROG HOME or somesuch   This can be supplied for the user automatically by creating a script with that information in  etc profile d   which will be sourced every time a user logs in

User · Answer

1  Neatest I explored almost every suggestion and here is the neatest one that worked for me  script root   dirname   readlink -f  0   It works even when the script is symlinked to a  PATH directory  See it in action here  https   github com pendashteh hcagent blob master bin hcagent 2  The coolest   Copyright https   stackoverflow com a 13222994 257479 script root   ls -l  proc    fd   grep  quot 255 - gt  quot    sed -e  s     - gt        This is actually from another answer on this very page  but I m adding it to my answer too  2  The most reliable Alternatively  in the rare case that those didn t work  here is the bullet proof approach    Copyright http   stackoverflow com a 7400673 257479 myreadlink         -h  quot  1 quot     amp  amp  echo  quot  1 quot      local link  quot   expr  quot   command ls -ld --  quot  1 quot   quot       - gt            quot   cd   dirname  1   myreadlink  quot  link quot    sed  quot s                 dirname  1   1  quot      whereis     echo  1   sed  quot s                  pwd   1  s               which --  1   s     1  quot      whereis realpath     local SCRIPT PATH   whereis  1   myreadlink   SCRIPT PATH    sed  quot s                 dirname   SCRIPT PATH    1  quot       script root   dirname   whereis realpath  quot  0 quot     You can see it in action in taskrunner source  https   github com pendashteh taskrunner blob master bin taskrunner Hope this help someone out there    Also  please leave it as a comment if one did not work for you and mention your operating system and emulator  Thanks

User · Answer

we just need to find out the folder where our incl sh and main sh is stored  just change your main sh with this   main sh     bin bash  SCRIPT NAME   basename  0  SCRIPT DIR    echo  0  sed  s  SCRIPT NAME  g    source  SCRIPT DIR incl sh  echo  The main script

User · Answer

I tend to make my scripts all be relative to one another   That way I can use dirname      bin sh  my dir    dirname   0       my dir other script sh

User · Answer

If it is in the same directory you can use dirname  0      bin bash  source   dirname  0  incl sh  echo  The main script

User · Answer

I tend to make my scripts all be relative to one another   That way I can use dirname      bin sh  my dir    dirname   0       my dir other script sh

User · Answer

According man hier suitable place for script includes is  usr local lib       usr local lib      Files associated with locally installed programs    Personally I prefer  usr local lib bash includes for includes  There is bash-helper lib for including libs in that way      bin bash     usr local lib bash includes bash-helpers sh  include api-client    exit 1                     include shared functions include mysql-status query-builder    exit 1     include script functions    include script functions with status message include mysql-status process-checker  status  process-checker        exit 1 include mysql-status nonexists  status  nonexists        exit 1

User · Answer

An alternative to   scriptPath   dirname  0    is   scriptPath   0          the advantage being not having the dependence on dirname  which is not a built-in command  and not always available in emulators

User · Answer

Personally put all libraries in a lib folder and use an import function to load them   folder structure    script sh contents    Imports   sh  files from  lib  directory function import       local file    lib  1 sh    local error   e 31mError   e 0mCannot find  e 1m 1 e 0m library at   e 2m file e 0m    if   -f   file     then      source   file      if   -z  IMPORTED    then       echo -e  error       exit 1     fi   else     echo -e  error     exit 1   fi     Note that this import function should be at the beginning of your script and then you can easily import your libraries like this   import  utils  import  requirements    Add a single line at the top of each library  i e  utils sh    IMPORTED   BASH SOURCE    Now you have access to functions inside utils sh and requirements sh from script sh  TODO  Write a linker to build a single sh file

User · Answer

1  Neatest I explored almost every suggestion and here is the neatest one that worked for me  script root   dirname   readlink -f  0   It works even when the script is symlinked to a  PATH directory  See it in action here  https   github com pendashteh hcagent blob master bin hcagent 2  The coolest   Copyright https   stackoverflow com a 13222994 257479 script root   ls -l  proc    fd   grep  quot 255 - gt  quot    sed -e  s     - gt        This is actually from another answer on this very page  but I m adding it to my answer too  2  The most reliable Alternatively  in the rare case that those didn t work  here is the bullet proof approach    Copyright http   stackoverflow com a 7400673 257479 myreadlink         -h  quot  1 quot     amp  amp  echo  quot  1 quot      local link  quot   expr  quot   command ls -ld --  quot  1 quot   quot       - gt            quot   cd   dirname  1   myreadlink  quot  link quot    sed  quot s                 dirname  1   1  quot      whereis     echo  1   sed  quot s                  pwd   1  s               which --  1   s     1  quot      whereis realpath     local SCRIPT PATH   whereis  1   myreadlink   SCRIPT PATH    sed  quot s                 dirname   SCRIPT PATH    1  quot       script root   dirname   whereis realpath  quot  0 quot     You can see it in action in taskrunner source  https   github com pendashteh taskrunner blob master bin taskrunner Hope this help someone out there    Also  please leave it as a comment if one did not work for you and mention your operating system and emulator  Thanks

User · Answer

Personally put all libraries in a lib folder and use an import function to load them   folder structure    script sh contents    Imports   sh  files from  lib  directory function import       local file    lib  1 sh    local error   e 31mError   e 0mCannot find  e 1m 1 e 0m library at   e 2m file e 0m    if   -f   file     then      source   file      if   -z  IMPORTED    then       echo -e  error       exit 1     fi   else     echo -e  error     exit 1   fi     Note that this import function should be at the beginning of your script and then you can easily import your libraries like this   import  utils  import  requirements    Add a single line at the top of each library  i e  utils sh    IMPORTED   BASH SOURCE    Now you have access to functions inside utils sh and requirements sh from script sh  TODO  Write a linker to build a single sh file

User · Answer

SRC   cd   dirname   0    pwd  source    SRC  incl sh

User · Answer

I think the best way to do this is to use the Chris Boran s way  BUT you should compute MY DIR this way     bin sh MY DIR   dirname   readlink -f  0    MY DIR other script sh  To quote the man pages for readlink   readlink - display value of a symbolic link         -f  --canonicalize         canonicalize  by following every symlink in every component of the given          name recursively  all but the last component must exist   I ve never encountered a use case where MY DIR is not correctly computed  If you access your script through a symlink in your  PATH it works

User · Answer

If it is in the same directory you can use dirname  0      bin bash  source   dirname  0  incl sh  echo  The main script

User · Answer

This works even if the script is sourced   source     dirname    BASH SOURCE 0      incl sh

User · Answer

A combination of the answers to this question provides the most robust solution   It worked for us in production-grade scripts with great support of dependencies and directory structure      bin bash    Full path of the current script THIS  readlink -f    BASH SOURCE 0    2  dev null  echo  0     The directory where current script resides DIR  dirname    THIS        Dot  means  source   i e   include       DIR compile sh   The method supports all of these    Spaces in path Links  via readlink    BASH SOURCE 0   is more robust than  0

User · Answer

Steve s reply is definitely the correct technique but it should be refactored so that your installpath variable is in a separate environment script where all such declarations are made   Then all scripts source that script and should installpath change  you only need to change it in one location  Makes things more  er  futureproof  God I hate that word   -   BTW You should really refer to the variable using   installpath  when using it in the way shown in your example       installpath  incl sh   If the braces are left out  some shells will try and expand the variable  installpath incl sh

User · Answer

This works even if the script is sourced   source     dirname    BASH SOURCE 0      incl sh

User · Answer

A combination of the answers to this question provides the most robust solution   It worked for us in production-grade scripts with great support of dependencies and directory structure      bin bash    Full path of the current script THIS  readlink -f    BASH SOURCE 0    2  dev null  echo  0     The directory where current script resides DIR  dirname    THIS        Dot  means  source   i e   include       DIR compile sh   The method supports all of these    Spaces in path Links  via readlink    BASH SOURCE 0   is more robust than  0

User · Answer

I put all my startup scripts in a  bashrc d directory  This is a common technique in such places as  etc profile d  etc   while read file  do source    file    done  lt  lt HERE   find   HOME   bashrc d -type f  HERE   The problem with the solution using globbing     for file in   HOME   bashrc d   sh  do source   file  done      is you might have a file list which is  too long   An approach like      find   HOME   bashrc d -type f   while read file  do source   file   done      runs but doesn t change the environment as desired

User · Answer

I d suggest that you create a setenv script whose sole purpose is to provide locations for various components across your system   All other scripts would then source this script so that all locations are common across all scripts using the setenv script   This is very useful when running cronjobs  You get a minimal environment when running cron  but if you make all cron scripts first include the setenv script then you are able to control and synchronise the environment that you want the cronjobs to execute in   We used such a technique on our build monkey that was used for continuous integration across a project of about 2 000 kSLOC

User · Answer

I tend to make my scripts all be relative to one another   That way I can use dirname      bin sh  my dir    dirname   0       my dir other script sh

User · Answer

I d suggest that you create a setenv script whose sole purpose is to provide locations for various components across your system   All other scripts would then source this script so that all locations are common across all scripts using the setenv script   This is very useful when running cronjobs  You get a minimal environment when running cron  but if you make all cron scripts first include the setenv script then you are able to control and synchronise the environment that you want the cronjobs to execute in   We used such a technique on our build monkey that was used for continuous integration across a project of about 2 000 kSLOC

[bash] How best to include other scripts?

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