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I'm trying to debug what bash does on login initialization for Linux. I've read that "bash -x" will make bash print out what it's doing, but it doesn't print commands in sourced files like "set -x" does. I can't use "set -x" because initialization runs before I can call it. "bash -x" seems to recurse fine on OS X, but that might be because of the bash versions.

Linux: 3.2.25

OS X: 3.2.48

Here's an excerpt of the non-recursing behavior on Linux:

bash -l -x -c 'echo 1'
# ... snip ...
+ for i in '/etc/profile.d/*.sh'
+ '[' -r /etc/profile.d/vim.sh ']'
+ '[' '' ']'
+ . /etc/profile.d/vim.sh
+ for i in '/etc/profile.d/*.sh'
+ '[' -r /etc/profile.d/which-2.sh ']'
+ '[' '' ']'
+ . /etc/profile.d/which-2.sh
# ... snip ...

Notice how /etc/profile.d/vim.sh is sourced, but its commands aren't printed. Is there a workaround without upgrading? Is this caused by the version difference?

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2 Answers 2

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1

set -x somewhere in the root file (the one requiring all other files) should work. Alternatively, introduce something like [[ !-z "$DEBUG" ]] && set -x in each file, and call with DEBUG=1 script.sh.

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  • Where is the root file? Is it platform independent?
    – Kelvin
    Apr 19, 2012 at 19:26
  • With "root file" I simply mean the file you are calling on the shell, and which is importing the other files. In my example, the root file would be script.sh
    – mkaito
    Apr 19, 2012 at 19:31
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    But bash login initialization happens before the script is run. It's too late to run "set -x" in the script. Try it yourself - run "bash -l -x script.sh". You'll see stuff happening before your script's commands are run.
    – Kelvin
    Apr 19, 2012 at 21:41
  • Why on Earth would you run a script with bash -l? That's meant for interactive shells. A script is not an interactive shell.
    – mkaito
    Apr 19, 2012 at 23:09
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    Please be a bit more open-minded - obviously the creators of bash thought it would be useful. I see 2 uses (at least): 1) You want to run ssh user@host 'bash -l -c command' so you get the proper env loaded. 2) You're a sysadmin and want to troubleshoot what init scripts are doing before your script runs - bash -l -x will show you. Sometimes you want to know where an env variable is being set.
    – Kelvin
    Apr 23, 2012 at 16:46
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Since you are sourcing scripts and not executing, your first command in the main script should be "set -x"

Now all sourced scripts will run in debug more. Remember when you source a script, it runs in you current shell, so if you set -x once, that will be good for all sources scripts.

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