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oils-for-unix/oils

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Oils is our upgrade path from bash to a better language and runtime. It's also for Python and JavaScript users who avoid shell!

225 mentions on Hacker News by 35 people: 15 stories, 210 comments · first 2016-11-26 · latest 2025-11-06

Mentions per year 225 mentions · busiest year 2020 (52)
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  1. …for decades (scsh was mentioned in this thread), and they aren't widely used as shell replacements: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Internal-DSLs-for-Shell https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells It doesn't mean they…
    comment by chubot · 2022-10-08 · in Why doesn't Bash’s ‘set -e’ do what I expected? (2021)
  2. …2) Add shopt --set oil:upgrade at the top to get the error handling fixes. Tell me what happens :) https://github.com/oilshell/oil I spent a long time on that, but the post didn't get read much. I think it's because it takes a lot of bash…
    comment by chubot · 2022-10-07 · in Why doesn't Bash’s ‘set -e’ do what I expected? (2021)
  3. …2) Add shopt --set oil:upgrade at the top to get the error handling fixes. Tell me what happens :) https://github.com/oilshell/oil I spent a long time on that, but the post didn't get read much. I think it's because it takes a lot of bash…
    comment by chubot · 2022-10-04 · in Xonsh: I don't remember how to write a for loop in Bash [video]
  4. …are there any examples of that? I want to add lockfiles for all the package managers we use, e.g. https://github.com/oilshell/oil/issues/1081
    comment by chubot · 2022-09-22 · in Hacking anything with GNU Guix
  5. …a comparison with Gitpod here: https://lobste.rs/s/jiyetr/hacking_anything_with_gnu_guix#c_... https://github.com/oilshell/oil/blob/master/README.md -- click "Contribute with Gitpod"
    comment by chubot · 2022-09-22 · in Hacking anything with GNU Guix
  6. …assert(place != nullptr); // placement new return new (place) T(std::forward<Args>(args)...); } https://github.com/oilshell/oil/blob/master/mycpp/gc_heap.h#... So there is nothing to really break up
    comment by chubot · 2022-09-17 · in CppCon 2022
  7. Sure you can check it out here: https://github.com/oilshell/oil $ wc -l NINJA* */NINJA* 64 NINJA_config.py ... 260 cpp/NINJA-steps.sh 361 cpp/NINJA_subgraph.py 305 mycpp/NINJA-steps.sh 605 mycpp/NINJA_subgraph.py 1615 total I borrowed the…
    comment by chubot · 2022-08-02 · in A Tutorial on Portable Makefiles (2017)
  8. …walkthrough or PAID "trial period". We want people who will have fun working on these problems. https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Where-Contributors-Have... https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Compiler-Engineer-Job -- slightly older,…
    comment by chubot · 2022-08-01 · in Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2022)
  9. Comparison of similar projects, including Dhall: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Survey-of-Config-Langua...
    comment by chubot · 2022-07-15 · in The Dhall Configuration Language
  10. …just download their tarball, and it's pure C, tiny, and very easy to use e.g. from shell or Python: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/blob/master/soil/deps-tar.sh... Nothing happened to Python 2! I still use it, and it's trivial to build and…
    comment by chubot · 2022-06-30 · in How Websites Die
  11. …but I saw in a recent thread that Ninja uses it, so that's a positive sign. I saved this here! https://github.com/oilshell/oil/issues/1161
    comment by chubot · 2022-06-14 · in Fork() without exec() is dangerous in large programs (2016)
  12. …people have asked me why not implement Oil in Go and various other languages, so I wrote this page: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/FAQ:-Why-Not-Write-Oil-... So the funny thing is that Python is a lower level language than Go for…
    comment by chubot · 2022-06-14 · in Fork() without exec() is dangerous in large programs (2016)
  13. I added this to the Alternative Regex Syntax wiki page with about a dozen similar projects: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Regex-Synta... e.g. compare with Melody 3 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30358554…
    comment by chubot · 2022-06-10 · in Rulex – A new, portable, regular expression language
  14. …are mentioning tons of alternative shells in this thread, and most of them are already listed here: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells (if not, feel free to add them)
    comment by chubot · 2022-04-26 · in Hush, a modern shell scripting language
  15. …in Python or C. The shell is for coarse-grained composition and coordination. [1] list here: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells ---- Another possible alternative is something like https://www.unison-lang.org/ where…
    comment by chubot · 2022-03-27 · in Why we need Lisp machines
  16. Some thoughts how future shells might tackle this: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/issues/469
    comment by eterps · 2022-03-22 · in Argbash: Bash argument parsing code generator
  17. FWIW a lot of other host languages are more DSL-like, and have similar libraries: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Internal-DSLs-for-Shell It looks like this particular one relies on method chaining…
    comment by chubot · 2022-03-11 · in Scripting with Go
  18. …back, and it's related to the Clojure and protobuf style of "versionless" software evolution: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Feature-Detection-Is-Be... 2. It means that you're often running a combination of software that nobody has…
    comment by chubot · 2022-02-28 · in The internet was designed with a narrow waist
  19. …https://lobste.rs/s/izpz2n/on_missed_opportunities_static_ty... again linked from the main page: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Perlis-Thompson-Princip...
    comment by chubot · 2022-02-27 · in The internet was designed with a narrow waist
  20. …use HTML. Which means the lowest common denominator is again text. (That discussion appears here: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Perlis-Thompson-Princip... )
    comment by chubot · 2022-02-27 · in The internet was designed with a narrow waist
  21. I made a wiki page for similar alternative regex syntax projects: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Regex-Synta... (including my own https://www.oilshell.org/release/latest/doc/eggex.html which is built into Oil)
    comment by chubot · 2022-02-17 · in Melody – a language that compiles to regular expressions
  22. I added this to https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/The-Biggest-Shell-Progr... although there are a lot of whitespace and comments to get up to ~3800 lines. The biggest shell scripts in the world seem to be about 10x bigger, around ~30K…
    comment by chubot · 2022-01-08 · in Bashforth: A Forth interpreter, written as bash script
  23. …users who avoid shell! ----- edit: Also reminds me that I wrote this page before designing QSN: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Shell-Almost-Has-a-JSON... So printf %q and %b are inverses in bash, but this doesn't work in other…
    comment by chubot · 2021-12-31 · in You shouldn't parse the output of ls(1)
  24. …the challenge is finding the right person rather than funding it (I'm applying for funding now) https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Compiler-Engineer-Job (rough draft, you may see polished versions of this later) One sentence description:…
    comment by chubot · 2021-12-19 · in Unix Shell Programming: The Next 50 Years
  25. …[4] But actually I think there's still work to do to remove the CPython dependency at runtime, https://github.com/oilshell/oil/issues/636
    comment by nextaccountic · 2021-12-19 · in Unix Shell Programming: The Next 50 Years
  26. …Andy C. ( https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=chubot ) proposed a protocol he called Shellac, see: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Shellac-Protocol-Propos...
    comment by akavel · 2021-12-15 · in The growth of command line options, 1979-Present (2020)
  27. …use. The Oil shell wiki has a great list of them (and Oil is one such shell itself, of course): https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells
    comment by pxc · 2021-11-26 · in The fish shell is amazing
  28. …There are a lot of examples in the benchmark/, test/, build/, etc. dirs: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/tree/master/benchmarks Factoring into processes is an important design skill. It lets you write a lot less code and thus creat
    comment by chubot · 2021-11-21 · in Oil 0.9.4 – User Feedback
  29. …-v" isn't reliable because several shells (including Dash) don't obey the POSIX standard. See https://github.com/oilshell/oil/blob/8fbc09bb3254cee944b0450...
    comment by anonydsfsfs · 2021-10-28 · in Debian's Which Hunt
  30. …then incrementally upgrade to Oil -- no big bang rewrite required! Other huge shell programs here: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/The-Biggest-Shell-Progr... And yes Oil should be suitable for writing command line tools (although it…
    comment by chubot · 2021-09-16 · in A Tour of the Oil Language
  31. …a more central place on the site) ---- pyp looks interesting, I added it here under Awk-like DSLs: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Internal-DSLs-for-Shell
    comment by chubot · 2021-09-16 · in A Tour of the Oil Language
  32. Thanks to Paul for fixing this just now :) https://github.com/oilshell/oil/pull/988
    comment by chubot · 2021-09-16 · in A Tour of the Oil Language
  33. …for say people who have the desire and ability to make it through the quick start for contributing: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Contributing (how to get a working bin/osh from git in 30 seconds on most Linux distros. You can then…
    comment by chubot · 2021-09-16 · in A Tour of the Oil Language
  34. …(recursive dicts, lists). And there's also room to add select/filter/sort. We need help :) https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Structured-Data-in-Oil
    comment by chubot · 2021-06-16 · in GitHub – nushell/nushell: A new type of shell
  35. …adding decision paralysis :-] [0]: https://elv.sh/ [1]: https://www.oilshell.org/ Lots more shells: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells
    comment by j1elo · 2021-06-16 · in GitHub – nushell/nushell: A new type of shell
  36. …(And the various other new shells, documented by the author of another new shell, Oil: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells )
    comment by xiaq · 2021-06-16 · in GitHub – nushell/nushell: A new type of shell
  37. …are several use cases for WASM in shell, and Rust has some unique advantages for writing WASM: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/issues/941 (This probably won't happen for a long time though, unless someone really wants to contribute and own…
    comment by chubot · 2021-06-04 · in Unix Shell Programming: The Next 50 Years [pdf]
  38. …(Whenever a variable is silently mutated by the interpreter, akin to $?, Oil prefixes it with _). https://github.com/oilshell/oil/issues/587 I solicit feedback on every Oil release: http://www.oilshell.org/blog/tags.html?tag=oil-release#oil…
    comment by chubot · 2021-06-04 · in Unix Shell Programming: The Next 50 Years [pdf]
  39. …but if you download Oil and see any other problems I'm interested! I think I fixed all of them. https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Where-To-Send-Feedback
    comment by chubot · 2021-05-15 · in The Bourne shell lets you set variables in if expressions
  40. …persistent arguments on POSIX behavior that is over 20 years old, simply because it's so confusing. https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Where-To-Send-Feedback
    comment by chubot · 2021-05-15 · in The Bourne shell lets you set variables in if expressions
  41. …the longest documents is a 182 page Master's thesis from the author of the Oh shell, linked here: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells There are many sections, but one of them goes into history, and other sections…
    comment by chubot · 2021-05-06 · in The Once and Future Shell [pdf]
  42. …completions needs to use it) Actually I just remembered I enumerated some "unusual cases" here: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Diversity-in-Command-Li... Is the escape hatch for Fig in JavaScript? One thing I would like to see…
    comment by chubot · 2021-05-05 · in CLUI: Building a Graphical Command Line (2020)
  43. …it with many people. The Ion shell author wrote some code toward it, and so did a zsh dev. https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Shellac-Protocol-Propos... But it didn't really go anywhere for a variety of reasons. One is the…
    comment by chubot · 2021-05-05 · in CLUI: Building a Graphical Command Line (2020)
  44. …A couple years ago I wanted to tackle this problem for Oil, and there was some brainstorming here: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Shell-Autocompletion https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Shellac-Protocol-Propos... and on the…
    comment by chubot · 2021-05-05 · in CLUI: Building a Graphical Command Line (2020)
  45. …as often or as rarely as they like with little impact on whether they're good shells or not. Also: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/branches/all?query=release%2...
    comment by abathur · 2021-05-04 · in ShellCheck: Finds bugs in your shell scripts
  46. BTW Ion is mentioned here along with many other alternative shells: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells
    comment by chubot · 2021-04-13 · in What was the point of [ “x$var” = “xval” ]?
  47. …using these newer shells for their lack of portability. Maybe one day we can have nice things. [0]: https://github.com/oilshell/oil [1]: https://github.com/elves/elvish [2]: https://github.com/xonsh/xonsh [3]: https://github.com/neugram/ng
    comment by maddyboo · 2021-04-12 · in What was the point of [ “x$var” = “xval” ]?
  48. …Next Generation Shell - https://github.com/ngs-lang/ngs Alternative Shells list by @chubot - https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells
    comment by ilyash · 2021-04-10 · in Ask HN: What to use instead of Bash / Sh for scripting?
  49. …Yep, there is a bunch! Andy, author of Oil Shell has a nice list for you: https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells
    comment by ilyash · 2021-04-06 · in Nushell: A New Type of Shell
  50. Have you tried any of the shells here? https://github.com/oilshell/oil/wiki/Alternative-Shells Discussed recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26121592 A lot of them are "fundamentally reimagining" shell -- actually I'd say MOST…
    comment by chubot · 2021-04-03 · in How to do things safely in Bash (2018)