this post was submitted on 28 May 2025
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I don't know if this applies to other shells, but bash will not only execute your script line-by-line, it will also read it line-by-line. Which means that you can modify the behavior of a running script by editing lines that have not yet been executed*. It's absolutely bonkers, and I'm sure that it has caused more than one system failure, during upgrades.
* For example, if you run the following script
and then edit the third line before the 5 second sleep has elapsed, then the modified line will be executed.
I have run into the problem of modifying a bash script while it is running.