Are there any logic problems in this Bash backup and verification script?
I'm writing a Bash script to create a full snapshot of several source directories in a timestamped backup directory. For now, I'm fine with hard-coded paths. The script…
error handling
Are try-catch blocks really bad practice?
I'm new to programming, and my boss recently called try-catch statements "garbage" and told me to avoid them completely. That confused me because I thought exceptions were a…
Are try-catch blocks really bad practice?
I'm new to programming, and my boss told me that try-catch statements are "garbage" and that I should avoid them entirely. That confused me because I thought exceptions…
How can I reduce duplication in these Bash installation functions?
I have several Bash functions that install Docker, Docker Compose, Git, and jq. Each function repeats argument-count checks, empty-value validation, boolean validation, debug logging, and error handling. The…
How should a PowerShell module document its error behavior?
I maintain a PowerShell module with about 40 exported provisioning functions. I recently reviewed all 127 places where those functions report or handle errors: 52 used string-based throw,…
How should a PowerShell module document whether errors terminate or continue?
I maintain a PowerShell module with roughly 40 exported provisioning functions. After auditing 127 error paths, I found four different behaviors: 52 used throw with a string, 34…
I Built an AI Scheduler After a Month of Learning Go—What Should I Improve?
I'm a second-year computer science student and have been teaching myself Go for about a month. During that time, I built Chronos, an AI-powered personal scheduler. It combines…
I’ve been learning Go for a month and built an AI scheduler—what should I improve?
I'm a second-year computer science student who has been learning Go for about a month. During that time, I built Chronos, an AI-powered personal scheduler. It combines fixed…
How can I simplify and improve my Bash backup script?
I'm fairly new to Bash scripting and am trying to tidy up a personal backup script. It creates date-stamped tar.xz archives from several folders, then transfers them to…
How can I simplify and make my Bash backup script more reliable?
I'm new to Bash scripting and I'm working on a personal backup script. It accepts up to four arguments, such as "essentials", "archive", and "paperwork". For each selected…
How can I let independent Step Function branches continue when one fails?
I have a workflow that starts with GetDataLambda, which retrieves data needed by two independent processing paths. After that task completes, I want to run these branches in…
What’s the cleanest way to handle inconsistent JSON responses in Python?
I'm pulling pricing data from a REST API for a small side project. Most responses are JSON, but the structure is inconsistent: fields may be missing, arrays can…
How can a Bash script safely return when sourced or exit when run directly?
I have a Bash script that may either be executed directly or sourced into the current shell. When it finishes, I need it to use `return` in the…
What’s a reliable way to handle inconsistent JSON responses in Python?
I'm pulling pricing data from a REST API for a small side project. Most responses are JSON, but the API sometimes omits fields, returns empty arrays, or sends…
Why isn’t my PowerShell retry function executing the script block?
I'm new to PowerShell and am trying to write a retry function that accepts a script block, the number of attempts, a delay between attempts, and an operation…
How should I capture API errors when running multiple PowerShell jobs?
I'm writing a PowerShell script that searches devices through an MDM platform. Because the API requires a separate request for each device, processing more than 1,500 systems sequentially…
Should I Use Separate ERR and EXIT Traps or Just One for My Bash Script?
I'm working on a Bash script that includes a function called `test_command`, which executes a command passed to it and checks whether it completed successfully. I'm wondering about…
How can I capture error messages and clean up Docker containers in my script?
I have a Bash script running on AWS EC2 that orchestrates a PostgreSQL dump using Docker. It works fine when everything goes smoothly, but if something fails—like if…
How do Python's `None` and Go's `error` handle function return values differently?
Hey everyone! I'm a junior developer trying to understand how Python and Go handle special cases when functions return values. I've noticed that Python functions often return a…
Why Do My Python Scripts Close Immediately Without Running?
I'm having an issue where any Python script I try to run, even ones I've downloaded from others, just closes immediately without executing anything. It's like it's not…