CHECKLIST.txt

script optimization checklist
-----------------------------
* passes http://www.shellcheck.net/#

* stub

    * correct and up to date information

    * confirm supported platform (as much as possible)

    * good description

* usage

    * function declaration style: usage() {

    * test $# = 0 || echo "$@"

    * usage line style: echo "Usage: $0 [OPTION]... FILENAME"

    * good brief usage message on the 3rd line (of the output)

    * list of options

	* comprehensive

	* good explanation

	* help option -h, --help

    * exit 1 at the end

* command line parser

    * negate with --no-FLAG

    * do not provide --no-FLAG if not useful

    * sample lines (optional if there are real examples)
    
	* flag
	
	* param

    * no unnecessary "--" parsing (comment out)

    * = shift; while test "$1"; do args+=("$1"); shift; done; break ;;

    * do not parse *) unnecessarily (comment out)

* pre-main

    * default values

    * flag checks: on | off

    * comment out or remove set -- "${args[@]}" if not needed

    * zero argument check: test $# = 0 && usage "possibly a message"

* main

    * proper handling of filenames with spaces

    * proper handling of missing external commands (see for example in wav2mp3.sh)

    * proper handling of missing perl modules

    * clean up using trap: trap 'cleanup; exit 1' 1 2 3 15

    * watch out for differences in command flags across different OS-es

    * use date +%F instead of date --iso

    * use $() instead of ``

    * exit codes: make sure it's non-zero on any non-normal exit