Agent skill
bash-testing
This skill should be used when the user asks to "test bash script", "write shell tests", "use shunit2", "use shellspec", "create test suite for bash", or mentions unit testing, test frameworks, mocking, or test-driven development for shell scripts.
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/Jamie-BitFlight/claude_skills/tree/main/plugins/bash-development/skills/bash-testing
SKILL.md
Bash Testing
Testing frameworks and patterns for shell scripts, focusing on shunit2 and shellspec.
Framework Selection
| Framework | Strengths | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| shunit2 | xUnit style, simple, portable | Unit tests, function testing |
| shellspec | BDD style, modern, extensive | Behavior specs, full projects |
shunit2
Installation
# Download directly
curl -L https://github.com/kward/shunit2/raw/master/shunit2 -o shunit2
# Or via package manager
apt install shunit2
brew install shunit2
Basic Test Structure
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Source the script being tested
source ./my_script.sh
# Test functions start with test
test_addition() {
result=$(add 2 3)
assertEquals "2 + 3 should equal 5" "5" "$result"
}
test_string_output() {
result=$(greet "World")
assertEquals "Hello, World" "$result"
}
test_file_creation() {
create_temp_file
assertTrue "Temp file should exist" "[ -f /tmp/testfile ]"
}
test_exit_code() {
validate_input "valid"
assertEquals "Should return 0 for valid input" 0 $?
}
# Setup and teardown
oneTimeSetUp() {
# Run once before all tests
export TEST_DIR=$(mktemp -d)
}
oneTimeTearDown() {
# Run once after all tests
rm -rf "$TEST_DIR"
}
setUp() {
# Run before each test
cd "$TEST_DIR"
}
tearDown() {
# Run after each test
rm -f "$TEST_DIR"/*
}
# Load shunit2
source shunit2
shunit2 Assertions
# Equality
assertEquals [message] expected actual
assertNotEquals [message] unexpected actual
# Null/Empty
assertNull [message] value
assertNotNull [message] value
# Boolean/Status
assertTrue [message] condition
assertFalse [message] condition
# Same reference (string comparison)
assertSame [message] expected actual
assertNotSame [message] unexpected actual
# Contains (in string)
assertContains [message] container content
# Exit status
assertEquals 0 $?
Testing Functions in Isolation
Code examples
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# test_my_functions.sh
source ./my_functions.sh
test_calculate_sum_empty() {
result=$(calculate_sum)
assertEquals "Empty sum should be 0" "0" "$result"
}
test_calculate_sum_single() {
result=$(calculate_sum 5)
assertEquals "5" "$result"
}
test_calculate_sum_multiple() {
result=$(calculate_sum 1 2 3 4 5)
assertEquals "15" "$result"
}
test_validate_email_valid() {
validate_email "test@example.com"
assertTrue "Valid email should pass" $?
}
test_validate_email_invalid() {
validate_email "not-an-email"
assertFalse "Invalid email should fail" $?
}
source shunit2
shellspec
Installation
# Via curl
curl -fsSL https://git.io/shellspec | sh
# Via Homebrew
brew install shellspec
# Via package managers
apt install shellspec
Directory Structure
project/
├── lib/
│ └── functions.sh
├── spec/
│ ├── spec_helper.sh
│ ├── functions_spec.sh
│ └── support/
│ └── fixtures/
└── .shellspec
Configuration (.shellspec)
--require spec_helper
--format documentation
--color
Basic Spec Structure
Code examples
shellspec Matchers
# Output matchers
The output should eq "exact match"
The output should include "partial"
The output should start with "prefix"
The output should end with "suffix"
The output should match pattern "*glob*"
The output should be blank
# Status matchers
The status should be success # exit 0
The status should be failure # exit non-zero
The status should eq 1 # specific code
# Variable matchers
The variable VAR should eq "value"
The variable VAR should be defined
The variable VAR should be undefined
# File matchers
The file "path" should be exist
The file "path" should be file
The file "path" should be directory
The file "path" should be readable
# Path matchers
The path "file.txt" should be exist
Mocking in shellspec
Describe 'deploy function'
# Mock external command
curl() {
echo "mocked response"
return 0
}
It 'calls API endpoint'
When call deploy "server"
The output should include "mocked response"
End
End
Describe 'file operations'
# Mock with function override
Mock rm
echo "rm called with: $*"
End
It 'attempts to remove file'
When call cleanup_temp
The output should include "rm called with"
End
End
Spec Helper
# spec/spec_helper.sh
# Load common functions
spec_helper_precheck() {
minimum_version "0.28.0"
}
spec_helper_loaded() {
# Set up test environment
export TEST_MODE=true
}
spec_helper_configure() {
# Import project functions
import 'lib/functions.sh'
}
Testing Patterns
Testing Exit Codes
# shunit2
test_success_exit() {
run_command "valid_input"
assertEquals 0 $?
}
test_error_exit() {
run_command "invalid_input"
assertEquals 1 $?
}
# shellspec
It 'exits 0 on success'
When call run_command "valid_input"
The status should eq 0
End
Testing stdout and stderr
# shunit2
test_stdout() {
result=$(my_function 2>/dev/null)
assertEquals "expected output" "$result"
}
test_stderr() {
error=$(my_function 2>&1 >/dev/null)
assertContains "$error" "error message"
}
# shellspec
It 'outputs to stdout'
When call my_function
The stdout should eq "expected output"
End
It 'outputs error to stderr'
When call my_function
The stderr should include "error message"
End
Testing with Fixtures
# Setup test fixtures
setUp() {
TEST_DIR=$(mktemp -d)
cat > "$TEST_DIR/config.json" <<EOF
{
"key": "value"
}
EOF
}
tearDown() {
rm -rf "$TEST_DIR"
}
test_config_parsing() {
result=$(parse_config "$TEST_DIR/config.json")
assertEquals "value" "$result"
}
Testing Interactive Functions
# Provide input via heredoc
test_interactive() {
result=$(my_prompt <<EOF
yes
EOF
)
assertEquals "confirmed" "$result"
}
# Or use printf
test_with_input() {
result=$(printf 'yes\n' | my_prompt)
assertEquals "confirmed" "$result"
}
Running Tests
# shunit2
./test_script.sh
# shellspec
shellspec # Run all specs
shellspec spec/file_spec.sh # Run specific spec
shellspec --format tap # TAP output
shellspec --jobs 4 # Parallel execution
Best Practices
- One assertion per test when practical
- Descriptive test names explaining what's tested
- Isolate tests - no dependencies between tests
- Test edge cases - empty input, special characters, large data
- Clean up resources in tearDown
- Mock external commands - don't test curl, test your logic
- Test exit codes not just output
Recommended Agent Skills
Expand your agent's capabilities with these related and highly-rated skills.
ccc
This skill should be used when code search is needed (whether explicitly requested or as part of completing a task), when indexing the codebase after changes, or when the user asks about ccc, cocoindex-code, or the codebase index. Trigger phrases include 'search the codebase', 'find code related to', 'update the index', 'ccc', 'cocoindex-code'.
agent-browser
Browser automation CLI for AI agents. Use when the user needs to interact with websites, including navigating pages, filling forms, clicking buttons, taking screenshots, extracting data, testing web apps, or automating any browser task. Triggers include requests to "open a website", "fill out a form", "click a button", "take a screenshot", "scrape data from a page", "test this web app", "login to a site", "automate browser actions", or any task requiring programmatic web interaction.
delegate
Quick delegation template for sub-agent prompts. Use when assigning work to a sub-agent, before invoking the Agent tool, or when preparing prompts for specialized agents. Provides the WHERE-WHAT-WHY framework. For comprehensive delegation guidance, activate the agent-orchestration how-to-delegate skill.
swarm-spawning
Spawn agents and teammates in Claude Code swarms. Use when choosing between subagents vs teammates, selecting agent types (Explore, Plan, general-purpose, plugin agents), configuring spawn backends (in-process, tmux, iterm2), or setting environment variables for spawned agents.
knowledge-explorer
Manage the research/ knowledge base (KB) of tool and library research entries. Use when browsing KB topics, adding new research entries, updating existing entries with dated revisions, fetching GitHub repo metadata into a draft KB entry, or migrating old-format entries to skill-spec frontmatter. Triggers on tasks like "what do we have on X", "add this to the KB", "update the KB entry for Y", "fetch github info for owner/repo", or "migrate old entries".
design-anti-patterns
Enforce anti-AI UI design rules based on the Uncodixfy methodology. Use when generating HTML, CSS, React, Vue, Svelte, or any frontend UI code. Prevents "Codex UI" — the generic AI aesthetic of soft gradients, floating panels, oversized rounded corners, glassmorphism, hero sections in dashboards, and decorative copy. Applies constraints from Linear/Raycast/Stripe/GitHub design philosophy: functional, honest, human-designed interfaces. Triggers on: UI generation, dashboard building, frontend component creation, CSS styling, landing page design, or any task producing visual interface code.
Didn't find tool you were looking for?