alt Hacker NewsHuh? Who cares if the script is .sh, .bash, Makefile, Justfile, .py, .js or even .php? If it works it works, as long as you can run it locally, it'll be good enough, and sometimes it's an even better idea to keep it in the same language the rest of the project is. It all depends and what language a script is made in shouldn't be considered a "smell".
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Shell and bash are easy to write insecurely and open your CI runners or dev machines up for exploitation by shell injection. Non-enthusiasts writing complex CI pipelines pulling and piping remote assets in bash without ShellCheck is a risky business.
Python is a lot easier to write safely.
> Huh? Who cares if the script is .sh, .bash, Makefile, Justfile, .py, .js or even .php?
Me, typically I have found it to be a sign of over-engineering and found no benefits over just using shell script/task runner, as all it should be is plumbing that should be simple enough that a task runner can handle it.
> If it works it works, as long as you can run it locally, it'll be good enough,
Maybe when it is your own personal project "If it works it works" is fine. But when you come to corporate environment there starts to be issues of readability, maintainability, proprietary tooling, additional dependencies etc I have found when people start to over-engineer and use programming languages(like Python).
E.g.
> never_inline 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [–]
> Build a CLI in python or whatever which does the same thing as CI, every CI stage should just call its subcommands.
However,
> and sometimes it's an even better idea to keep it in the same language the rest of the project is
I'll agree. Depending on the project's language etc other options might make sense. But personally so far everytime I have come across something not using a task runner it has just been the wrong decision.
Once you get beyond shell, make, docker (and similar), dependencies become relevant. At my current employer, we're mostly in TypeScript, which means you've got NPM dependencies, the NodeJS version, and operating system differences that you're fighting with. Now anyone running your build and tests (including your CI environment) needs to be able to set all those things up and keep them in working shape. For us, that includes different projects requiring different NodeJS versions.
Meanwhile, if you can stick to the very basics, you can do anything more involved inside a container, where you can be confident that you, your CI environment, and even your less tech-savvy coworkers can all be using the exact same dependencies and execution environment. It eliminates entire classes of build and testing errors.