Legacy BashSupport

Please note, legacy BashSupport is not maintained anymore. BashSupport’s successor, the BashSupport Pro plugin, is under active development and provides advanced features: debugger integration, bats–core test runner, and much more.
The plugin shown here – BashSupport – is not under active development anymore.

General information

The plugin is available on the central plugin repository at plugins.jetbrains.com.

It only supports IDEs up to version 2021.1.

Source code

BashSupport is open–source software and is available under the terms of the Apache license, version 2.0. The source code is available on GitHub at GitHub’s BashSupport repository.

Support

Bugs

Report any bug you encounter using our issue tracker.

Feature requests

If you notice a missing feature of BashSupport, please don’t hesitate to post a new request on our issue tracker.

Bash documentation

Information about the Bash shell and language is available on external pages. We recommend the following pages:

Bash hackers wiki

Bash hackers wiki offers a lot of great information on Bash

GNU Bash reference

The official Bash reference manual

Installation

The plugin is installed using IntelliJ® IDEA’s plugin manager, JetBrains offers detailed information how to do this. The plugin’s name is BashSupport.

Detailed information and a list of all available versions of the plugin is available at BashSupport on plugins.jetbrains.com.

Features

• BashSupport is free and open–source software, licensed under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license
• Support for Bash 3.2 and Bash 4.0
• Configurable syntax highlighting
• Error messages for syntax errors
• Basic refactorings, inspections and quickfixes
• Integrated documentation

Usage

Execute Bash scripts

BashSupports can directly run scripts within IntelliJ. You can create a new run configuration for Bash scripts. Here you can set which interpreter is used to run it.

Whenever a script is executed the output is logged. If Bash prints out syntax errors then the erroneous lines are clickable to jump to the location of the error.

Project settings

The project settings are set in the project settings area of the settings dialog.

Language level

The plugin supports the new features and changes which were introduced with Bash version 4.0. If this setting is chosen then all scripts are read as Bash 4.0.

Global variables

A set of global variables can be configured for each project. Unknown variables with these names are not flagged as an error any more. If desired the variable names can be offered in the code completion, as well.

Global settings

File extensions

By default BashSupport supports these file extensions:

• .sh
• .bash

IntelliJ offers the possibility to link so far unknown file extensions to a plugin. Just choose BashSupport to open files with this newly registered file extension as bash files.

Often Bash scripts are saved without a file extension. BashSupport can be configured so that it accepts files without extensions as Bash scripts. If you enable this options then all files will be linked to BashSupport. But if you want to only link those files to BashSupport which really are Bash scripts then you can enable the other option. Then BashSupport will look at the file content to guess the file type.

Colors and fonts

You can configure the settings for colors and fonts according to your needs. Please open the settings dialog using Settings in the File menu. The settings for Bash scripts are available at Editor → Colors & Fonts → Bash.

Here you can change the settings for the various elements of a Bash script. IntelliJ shows a preview of the settings.

Navigating in Bash scripts

Just open a Bash file. You can edit it like you are used to.

File structure

In the structure view IntelliJ shows the functions of the Bash script. This view is quickly available by pressing Ctrl → F12 .

Nested functions are displayed, too.

Go To → Declaration Ctrl → B

BashSupport supports Go to → Declaration. If you position the caret on a function call and run this action then the caret will jump to the location of the declared function.

This feature is also available on heredoc markers.

View → Quick Definition Lookup Ctrl → Shift → I

BashSupport shows the source code of the declared function if you apply this action to a function call.

Search → Highlight Usages in File Ctrl → Shift → F7

If you position the caret on a function call or on the name of a function and run this action then IntelliJ will highlight all locations where this function is used. Jump to the next position by pressing F3 .

This feature is also available in heredoc markers.

Navigating between functions

In the editor you can navigate between functions of a file by using Alt+Up and Alt+Down .

Brace matching

If you position the caret before or after a bracket then IntelliJ will highlight the other element of the pair of brackets.

Code completion

BashSupport supports the automatic code completion. The suggestions are displayed be pressing Ctrl → Space .

Functions

The code completion offers the defined functions of the currently edited script. A function is only offers if it was declared before the current file location.

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function showHome() {
    ls -ls $HOME
}

sho|#<- caret is here, shows 'showHome'

Bash commands

If this configuration setting is enabled then the built–in Bash commands are offered in the code completion.

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ec|#<- caret is here, shows "echo"

Script variables

Variables, which are declared in the currently edited script, are offered in the code completion.

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MY_HOME=$HOME
echo $MY|#<- caret is here, shows 'MY_HOME'

Built–in Bash variables

If the setting is active then the built–in Bash variables like $PATH or $PWD are offered in the code completion.

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ls -la $HO|#<- caret is here, shows 'HOME'

Paths in the filesystem

Paths can automatically be completed. Just enter the beginning of the path and then press Ctrl → Space . IntelliJ now offers a set of directories and file paths of you system which match your input.

BashSupport recognizes paths with these prefixes:

• /
• ./
• $HOME/
• ~/

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ls -la $HOME/.bash| ## <- caret is here, shows '.bashrc', for example

Refactoring

BashSupport supports simple refactorings in Bash scripts

Renaming of functions

Functions can be renamed. For this the definition itself and all calls of it are changed. Position the caret on the name ofa definition or on a call to a function. Use Refactor → Rename… ( Ctrl → F6 ) to change the name.

Renaming of variables

Variables can be renamed in the same way as functions. Position the caret on the identifier in an assignment or on the use of a variable. Call Refactor → Rename… ( Ctrl → F6 ) to rename the variable.

Renaming of heredoc markers

The start- and endmarkers of heredocs can be renamed. Place the caret on the marker and choose Refactor → Rename… ( Ctrl → F6 ) to rename the marker.

Source code analysis

BashSupport offers the so–called “inspections”. The source code is analysed and fixes are offered for the found problems.

Shebang: Adjustments

If the first line starts with #! it’s called the shebang line. It defines the command which is used to execute the script. If this command is an usual command line a quickfix is shown.

If the command is valid alternatives are offered. For example, /bin/bash is suggested if /bin/sh is used.

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## Before the quickfix
#!bash
echo Hello World

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## After the quickfix
#!/bin/bash
echo Hello World

Functions: Wrap body in braces

Bash allows to define the body of a function without surrounding braces. In these cases BashSupport offers a quickfix to automatically wrap the body in braces.

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## Before the quickfix
function helloWorld
    if echo Hello; then echo " World"; fi

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## After the quickfix
function helloWorld {
    if echo Hello; then echo " World"; fi
}

Conversion of backtick to subshell–commands

In Bash there are two possibilities to run commands in a subshell. The old way is `echo a`, the new way is $(echo a). With this inspection you can convert an expression from the old to the new type.

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## Before the quickfix
echo `echo hi there`

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## Subshell call after the quickfix has been applied
echo $(echo hi there)

Conversion of subshell to backtick commands

This inspections is used to convert subshell calls like $(...) to the old way using backticks.

This inspection is deactivated by default. If you want to use it you have to manually enable it.

Duplicate function definition

This inspection marks a function definition which overwrites a previously defined function.

Evaluate expansions

Using this inspection Bash expansions like {a..z}{0..9} can be converted to the evaluated result. All kinds of expansions are supported. If the support for Bash 4.0 has been enabled then the expanded expansions are supported, as well.

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## Before the quickfix
echo {1..10}

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## After the quickfix
echo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Missing include file

If the filename of an include command is static, i.e. it does not contain any variable, then this inspection checks if the given file is available on the current system. If the file is missing then the command will be marked with a warning.

Recursive include commands

If a file includes itself with an include command then this will loop indefinitely. This inspection spots if a script includes itself and marks those commands with an error.

Source code formatting

BashSupport supports the formatting of Bash source code. You can press Code → Reformat Code… to reformat the current script or the currently selected text.

Language injection

BashSupport supports language injection into strings and heredoc elements.

Further information

• IntelliJ’s online help.

Setting the injected language

You can either temporarily inject a language using IntelliJ’s default action. In this case the injected language will be lost once you delete the element or close the file.

To keep the injected language persistently, you can use a comment #language=LANGUAGE.

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#language=JSON
export JSON="
  {\"message\": \"Bash is great :)\"}
"

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#language=JSON
cat << EOF
  {
     "id": "abc",
     "message": "Bash is great :)"
  }
EOF