Interview › Scripting (Bash, Groovy)
How would you structure a large script into reusable functions and a main entry point? [Advanced]
Answer
I structure a large script with a small main function, focused helper functions, clear global constants, argument parsing, validation, logging, cleanup traps, and a final main "$@" entry point. This makes the script testable and readable.
Technical explanation
Keep functions single-purpose, such as parse_args, validate_inputs, acquire_lock, deploy, verify, and cleanup.
Avoid running substantial logic at import/source time if the file may be reused as a library.
For very large logic, move to Python or another maintainable language with unit tests and packages.
Hands-on example
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
log() { printf '[%s] %s\n' "$(date +%FT%T%z)" "$*"; }
die() { log "ERROR: $*" >&2; exit 1; }
parse_args() {
ENVIRONMENT=${1:-}
[[ -n "$ENVIRONMENT" ]] || die "env required"
}
validate() { command -v kubectl >/dev/null || die "kubectl missing"; }
run() { log "deploying to $ENVIRONMENT"; }
main() { parse_args "$@"; validate; run; }
main "$@"Preparing for an interview?
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