python is usually the next step up in admin land

python is a pretty standard install on linux systems since so many things like you're talking about use it

I write a lot of bootstrapping scripts, and I have a solution thats probably something you and others in this thread have never seen before. You can write a single script in a full/normal language, no compilation step, and it works on systems that only have bash/sh. It doesn't compile to bash, or at least not in the way you might think/expect it to, but it should do what you want.

(guillotine because it's a universal executor) https://github.com/jeff-hykin/deno-guillotine

This^ one uses Deno/JavaScript, but in principle it might be possible to do with other languages. It definitely requires some explanation, so I'll try to give that here;

As another person said, shells are not nearly as standardized as we need them to be. Mac uses zsh, Ubuntu uses dash, neither store a posix bash exectuable in the same place, and both have ls and grep differences that are big enough to crash common scripts. Even if you're super strict on POSIX compliance, common things will still break if you write a big script (or trying to compile a big program to bash).

I hate JS as much as the next guy, but it is possible to write a single text file that is valid bash/dash/zsh/powershell and valid JavaScript all at the same time. It sounds impossible, but there is enough overlapping syntax that actually any javascript program can be converted into a valid bash script without mangling the JS code. It might be possible to do for python as well.

POSIX is good enough for making a small, carefully-crafted well-tested OS-detecting caveat-handling script. So that's exactly what we do; use a small shell script at the top to ensure that the JS runtime you want is installed (auto install if missing). Then the script executes itself again using the JS runtime. It wasn't easy but I a made a library that explains how it's possible and gives a cli tool that automates it for the Deno runtime (the link I posted above).

After that, I just recreated tools that feel like bash, but this time they are actually cross platform. Ex:

let argWithSpaces = "some thing"
run`echo hello ${argWithSpaces}`

I picked Deno because it auto installs libraries (imports directly from URL so users don't have to install anything)

Unfortunately shell script is not as portable as you might be anticipating. Different distro run different shells, with different settings, and also different tools. Think BSD grep vs GNU grep.

There is Batsh, a simple language with c-style syntax that compiles to bash and batch.

This thread reminds me of stackoverflow, most people are just convincing you in something else and it is obvious they have never been in your (and mine) situation.

Just answer question if you have some idea, yes we know python exist, that's nice, but not an answer to this question.

Just use Python. If you absolutely need it on every system use go and compile it down to a binary.

I don't see why bash would be used at all here. If you want something that doesn't need another interpreter, then just compile a binary.

Why not use a compiled language that compiles to fat binaries (rust, go etc)?

Giga brain move: make a bash script that compiles some c code then runs it

Not exactly what you asked for, but take a look at Nushell

Why not another scripting language (no compile necessary)?

But you're describing compiling that new language to bash...

https://github.com/tdenniston/bish is one such language.

I'd also recommend Shellcheck which helps prevent many problems with shell scripts.

Although it doesn’t crosspile to bash, I think a good middle ground is bitfield/script. Basically you can do many things you would normally script very simply with nice syntax and distribute a binary.

The way I used to solve this problem back in the day was with a statically compiled Perl binary.

I'm gonna pile in with yet another option that isn't a language that compiles to bash...

Consider Ruby for easier shell scripting. With its back tick syntax for executing shell commands, it's quick to use when you want to glue together a series of commands. ...and then you get to use a sane syntax for your script's logic.

Ex:

# Check my history for all usages of the xsv command
# and extract the filename
csv_files = `grep ~/.zsh_history "xsv" | awk '{print $3}'`.
                     split("\n").
                     map(&:chomp)

# list any csv with my phone number
csv_files.select { | filename|
  `grep #{filename} "555-1234"`.chomp != ""
}.each {|filename| puts filename}

There's always Golang which compiles to an x86 binary. But that's probably not what you want since you probably want something readable and editable on the end system.

Doesn't powershell do this? I've been learning powershell, and they keep making a tech agnostic claim along these lines, but I haven't tested it on Linux yet.

I haven’t used it, but this node package looks enticing

And when it is powerful enough you can make it self hosting.