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title:
  - value: 'Writing bash scripts with Nix'
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  - value: '2024-08-20T00:00:00+00:00'
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      <p>Yesterday, I wrote about <a href="/daily/2024/08/19/bash-scripting-for-fun-and-profit">a bash script I've written</a> to export a list of videos on my external hard drive.</p>

      <p>If you <a href="https://github.com/opdavies/dotfiles.nix/blob/a1ef2d1402c9c607e7a3e4427ce125d0cabeddcd/lib/shared/scripts/export-video-list.nix#L12-L31">looked at the script on GitHub</a> and you're familiar with bash scripting, you may have thought it looked a bit odd or missing some things.</p>

      <p>That's because I wrote it <a href="/daily/2022/09/26/experimenting-with-the-nix-package-manager">with Nix</a> - the tool I've been using for almost two years to manage my dotfiles and operating system configuration.</p>

      <p>Using Nix for bash scripts has advantages, like automatically adding the shebang line, setting sensible defaults for error handling, and automatically running <code>shellcheck</code> when switching.</p>

      <p>I think the main advantage, though, is it can inject any dependency packages into the script.</p>

      <p>This script needs <code>tree</code> and <code>jq</code>, so they are dependencies of the script and the script can't run if they aren't installed.</p>

      <p>But, I don't need to assume they are available. Nix can do it automatically and make any packages added as build inputs available.</p>

      <p>Now, if anyone else wanted to use this script, or I wanted to share another script with colleagues or a client, they can use it without needing to install any dependencies separately and the script will continue to work in the future using its explicitly-added dependencies.</p>

              
    format: full_html
    processed: |
      <p>Yesterday, I wrote about <a href="/daily/2024/08/19/bash-scripting-for-fun-and-profit">a bash script I've written</a> to export a list of videos on my external hard drive.</p>

      <p>If you <a href="https://github.com/opdavies/dotfiles.nix/blob/a1ef2d1402c9c607e7a3e4427ce125d0cabeddcd/lib/shared/scripts/export-video-list.nix#L12-L31">looked at the script on GitHub</a> and you're familiar with bash scripting, you may have thought it looked a bit odd or missing some things.</p>

      <p>That's because I wrote it <a href="/daily/2022/09/26/experimenting-with-the-nix-package-manager">with Nix</a> - the tool I've been using for almost two years to manage my dotfiles and operating system configuration.</p>

      <p>Using Nix for bash scripts has advantages, like automatically adding the shebang line, setting sensible defaults for error handling, and automatically running <code>shellcheck</code> when switching.</p>

      <p>I think the main advantage, though, is it can inject any dependency packages into the script.</p>

      <p>This script needs <code>tree</code> and <code>jq</code>, so they are dependencies of the script and the script can't run if they aren't installed.</p>

      <p>But, I don't need to assume they are available. Nix can do it automatically and make any packages added as build inputs available.</p>

      <p>Now, if anyone else wanted to use this script, or I wanted to share another script with colleagues or a client, they can use it without needing to install any dependencies separately and the script will continue to work in the future using its explicitly-added dependencies.</p>

              
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