How to Debug shell Script in Linux?

While executing a shell script use sh command with below options to debug a shell script in effective way. 


Options: -x , -v , -e , -u


-x if you set this option, it will show you each line before it executes it. Comments will not be reported.

#sh –x scriptname

-v Echo’s each line as it is read. It’s a kind of verbose and even echo back commented lines too.

#sh –v scriptname

Note: A small difference between –x and –v is that –v echo’s the line as it is read (So it will even display comments too.), whereas –x flag causes each command to be echoed as it is executed.

#sh –xv scriptname

-u –At times you use a variable without setting some value to it. If you use this flag it will give you the error saying so and so variable is not set before executing the script.

-e –Exit the shell script if any error occurs. This option will stop the script to run further once the script encounters an error. Use full for debugging the first error itself when running big scripts…

#sh –e scriptname


Example:

#sh -xv bkp_script.sh

#sh -e bkp_script.sh