A more reasonable way to comment blocks of shell code...

I love using shell script for launching java and groovy apps because they're so good at setting the table in a way that keeps the application much simpler... especially when the shell script can handle common needs which is often the case for Operations-style functionality. Example shell script functionality includes

• determining if there's sufficient space on the file system,
• collecting files to process,
• configuring the environment (as in defining traps that clean up temp files and remove lock files when an app closes either naturally or via control-C interrupt, or re-directing I/O so that a control-C won't kill the process you're running).

Because operations-style applications suffer from out-of-site, out-of-mind syndrome, having a solid strategy with shell scripts that can manage and measure the operating environment, and scream bloody murder when things aren't right, makes them a worthy design component.

I've never liked "the fact" that to comment out a block of code in unix shell programming I had to insert # symbols in front of every line.

I found out over the weekend the ideal way to do it using a here document and the ":" operator, which is a no-op

# all this code inside this section document
# is now invisible to the shell interpreter
# Add to use a # anywhere.

And here's how to do the equivalent with a here document.

: <<STUFF_TO_PASS_TO_COLON
all this code inside this here document
is now invisible to the shell interpreter
Didn't have to use a # anywhere.
STUFF_TO_PASS_TO_COLON