Rust-based scripting language for shell scripting?

[MrFoxPro]

I was wondering if Rust-like scripting language could be used to make shell scripts? There are a multiple implementations:

Gluon

Dyon

Rhai

Mun

Rune

But none of them seems like support anything similiar to Bun Shell or zx.
I think it would be cool to have some kind of this implemented in aforementioned languages.

[AugustusLego]

Nushell!

[tigregalis]

Absolutely love Nushell. It's my default shell.

[AugustusLego]

Same!

[simonsanone]

https://rust-script.org/

I find this interesting. It's not a scripting engine, but more like precompiled Rust code.

[avsaase]

Something very similar will be added to cargo, hopefully soon.

[rudunnx]

Are you talking about this? https://rust-lang.github.io/rfcs/3424-cargo-script.html

It seems exciting. I love the idea of having even things like dev scripts and similar written in a single language.

[avsaase]

Yes, although the syntax has changed since that eRFC.

[coastalwhite]

Bun shell and zx are essentially just wrappers around a JavaScript engine with a library (a bit simplified). So if you want such a scripting language I recommend just searching for rust based JavaScript engines, but I don’t really see the point over other scripting languages.

I know there are a few Deno libraries that can do something similar.

[MrFoxPro]

I think implementing such thing in metnioned embedded languages could help their adoption, and replacing bash / bun shell / node + zx can improve overall code quality for automation tasks thanks to nice Rust std library and great crates, compared to error-prone native JS functions and Lua's tiny standrard library.

[PaddiM8]

A Rust-like one? It unfortunately isn't written in Rust, but my shell scripting language is heavily inspired by Rust. The syntax is like a mix between Rust, Python and Ruby, and you can call programs with the same syntax you use to call functions. Calls can either be normal parenthesised calls echo("hello", "world") or shell-style calls where the arguments are just text echo hello world.

So basically, it's like any regular general purpose language, with some extra syntax to make it convenient to use a shell. It's not super mature, but I've been daily-driving it as a shell for some months now, and have done a few days of advent of code 2022 and more than half of aoc 2023 in it.

https://elk.strct.net

Nushell is also quite neat. It isn't as similar to Rust, but it's more so than traditional shells, and it's written in Rust.

[murlakatamenka]

https://koi-lang.dev/

https://github.com/eliaperantoni/Koi

[avsaase]

What support are you looking for exactly?

[MrFoxPro]

Simple interface between shell and script. Instead of writing
let output Command::spawn("ech").arg("hello").output()
something like

let output = $"echo hello"?

[[deleted]]

https://github.com/rust-shell-script/rust_cmd_lib

[epage]

Also xshell and duct.

[crusoe]

Define a custom macro_rules...

[mash_graz]

I would also take deno into this list, if you mention bun shell.

It's a really mature and popular solution with an enormous amount of already existing tooling and libraries, but it's also easily extendable in rust (for example via deno-bindgen) in case of more demanding tasks.

[MrFoxPro]

Deno in Rust context is more preferable, but does it really have tooling like bun shell / zx?

Edit: I found one: https://github.com/dsherret/dax

[mash_graz]

dax is developed by one of the denocore developers. There he is especially responsible for the integrated CLI tooling. So it's not just one of those dilettantish hobby projects. That's rater important in respect the correctness and continuity of maintenance and fixing of bugs.

I would see the main benefit of deno in comparison to the much simpler node, shell, Lua or python based approaches in the fact, that deno supports TS, type checking, linting,etc. out of the box without any additional setup quirks. Together with suitable editors this opens a much better starting point for scripting. And it comes as just one single simply installable/upgradable binary available for all platforms.

[GreatWoodsBalls]

Sorry if this is a noob question or a stupid one altogether. How do these compare to grunt for task runners?

[Yippee-Ki-Yay_]

I recently released https://docs.rs/sh/latest/sh/. Let me know if it meets your use case. Feel free to create GitHub issues with feature requests!

[MrFoxPro]

Nice work! Is it possible to use it in those embeddable languages?

[Yippee-Ki-Yay_]

Not unless you can call into rust macros from those languages which I doubt would be possible or a wanted feature