OS/Shell Scripting Troubleshooting Workflow Bundle

Overview

Comprehensive workflow for operating system troubleshooting, shell scripting, and system administration across Linux, macOS, and Windows. This bundle orchestrates skills for debugging system issues, creating robust scripts, and automating administrative tasks.

When to Use This Workflow

Use this workflow when:

• Debugging shell script errors
• Creating production-ready bash scripts
• Troubleshooting system issues
• Automating system administration tasks
• Managing processes and services
• Configuring system resources

Workflow Phases

Phase 1: Environment Assessment

Skills to Invoke

• bash-linux - Linux bash patterns
• bash-pro - Professional bash scripting
• bash-defensive-patterns - Defensive scripting

Actions

1. Identify operating system and version
2. Check available tools and commands
3. Verify permissions and access
4. Assess system resources
5. Review logs and error messages

Diagnostic Commands

# System information
uname -a
cat /etc/os-release
hostnamectl

# Resource usage
top
htop
df -h
free -m

# Process information
ps aux
pgrep -f pattern
lsof -i :port

# Network status
netstat -tulpn
ss -tulpn
ip addr show

Copy-Paste Prompts

Use @bash-linux to diagnose system performance issues

Phase 2: Script Analysis

Skills to Invoke

• bash-defensive-patterns - Defensive scripting
• shellcheck-configuration - ShellCheck linting
• bats-testing-patterns - Bats testing

Actions

1. Run ShellCheck for linting
2. Analyze script structure
3. Identify potential issues
4. Check error handling
5. Verify variable usage

ShellCheck Usage

# Install ShellCheck
sudo apt install shellcheck  # Debian/Ubuntu
brew install shellcheck      # macOS

# Run ShellCheck
shellcheck script.sh
shellcheck -f gcc script.sh

# Fix common issues
# - Use quotes around variables
# - Check exit codes
# - Handle errors properly

Copy-Paste Prompts

Use @shellcheck-configuration to lint and fix shell scripts

Phase 3: Debugging

Skills to Invoke

• systematic-debugging - Systematic debugging
• debugger - Debugging specialist
• error-detective - Error pattern detection

Actions

1. Enable debug mode
2. Add logging statements
3. Trace execution flow
4. Isolate failing sections
5. Test components individually

Debug Techniques

# Enable debug mode
set -x  # Print commands
set -e  # Exit on error
set -u  # Exit on undefined variable
set -o pipefail  # Pipeline failure detection

# Add logging
log() {
    echo "[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] $*" >> /var/log/script.log
}

# Trap errors
trap 'echo "Error on line $LINENO"' ERR

# Test sections
bash -n script.sh  # Syntax check
bash -x script.sh  # Trace execution

Copy-Paste Prompts

Use @systematic-debugging to trace and fix shell script errors

Phase 4: Script Development

Skills to Invoke

• bash-pro - Professional scripting
• bash-defensive-patterns - Defensive patterns
• linux-shell-scripting - Shell scripting

Actions

1. Design script structure
2. Implement functions
3. Add error handling
4. Include input validation
5. Add help documentation

Script Template

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

# Constants
readonly SCRIPT_NAME=$(basename "$0")
readonly SCRIPT_DIR=$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)

# Logging
log() {
    local level="$1"
    shift
    echo "[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] [$level] $*" >&2
}

info() { log "INFO" "$@"; }
warn() { log "WARN" "$@"; }
error() { log "ERROR" "$@"; exit 1; }

# Usage
usage() {
    cat <<EOF
Usage: $SCRIPT_NAME [OPTIONS]

Options:
    -h, --help      Show this help message
    -v, --verbose   Enable verbose output
    -d, --debug     Enable debug mode

Examples:
    $SCRIPT_NAME --verbose
    $SCRIPT_NAME -d
EOF
}

# Main function
main() {
    local verbose=false
    local debug=false

    while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
        case "$1" in
            -h|--help)
                usage
                exit 0
                ;;
            -v|--verbose)
                verbose=true
                shift
                ;;
            -d|--debug)
                debug=true
                set -x
                shift
                ;;
            *)
                error "Unknown option: $1"
                ;;
        esac
    done

    info "Script started"
    # Your code here
    info "Script completed"
}

main "$@"

Copy-Paste Prompts

Use @bash-pro to create a production-ready backup script

Use @linux-shell-scripting to automate system maintenance tasks

Phase 5: Testing

Skills to Invoke

• bats-testing-patterns - Bats testing framework
• test-automator - Test automation

Actions

1. Write Bats tests
2. Test edge cases
3. Test error conditions
4. Verify expected outputs
5. Run test suite

Bats Test Example

#!/usr/bin/env bats

@test "script returns success" {
    run ./script.sh
    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
}

@test "script handles missing arguments" {
    run ./script.sh
    [ "$status" -ne 0 ]
    [ "$output" == *"Usage:"* ]
}

@test "script creates expected output" {
    run ./script.sh --output test.txt
    [ -f "test.txt" ]
}

Copy-Paste Prompts

Use @bats-testing-patterns to write tests for shell scripts

Phase 6: System Troubleshooting

Skills to Invoke

• devops-troubleshooter - DevOps troubleshooting
• incident-responder - Incident response
• server-management - Server management

Actions

1. Identify symptoms
2. Check system logs
3. Analyze resource usage
4. Test connectivity
5. Verify configurations
6. Implement fixes

Troubleshooting Commands

# Check logs
journalctl -xe
tail -f /var/log/syslog
dmesg | tail

# Network troubleshooting
ping host
traceroute host
curl -v http://host
dig domain
nslookup domain

# Process troubleshooting
strace -p PID
lsof -p PID
iotop

# Disk troubleshooting
du -sh /*
find / -type f -size +100M
lsof | grep deleted

Copy-Paste Prompts

Use @devops-troubleshooter to diagnose server connectivity issues

Use @incident-responder to investigate system outage

Phase 7: Automation

Skills to Invoke

• workflow-automation - Workflow automation
• cicd-automation-workflow-automate - CI/CD automation
• linux-shell-scripting - Shell scripting

Actions

1. Identify automation opportunities
2. Design automation workflows
3. Implement scripts
4. Schedule with cron/systemd
5. Monitor automation health

Cron Examples

# Edit crontab
crontab -e

# Backup every day at 2 AM
0 2 * * * /path/to/backup.sh

# Clean logs weekly
0 3 * * 0 /path/to/cleanup.sh

# Monitor disk space hourly
0 * * * * /path/to/monitor.sh

Systemd Timer Example

# /etc/systemd/system/backup.timer
[Unit]
Description=Daily backup timer

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Copy-Paste Prompts

Use @workflow-automation to create automated system maintenance workflow

Common Troubleshooting Scenarios

High CPU Usage

top -bn1 | head -20
ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head -10
pidstat 1 5

Memory Issues

free -h
vmstat 1 10
cat /proc/meminfo

Disk Space

df -h
du -sh /* 2>/dev/null | sort -h
find / -type f -size +500M 2>/dev/null

Network Issues

ip addr show
ip route show
ss -tulpn
curl -v http://target

Service Failures

systemctl status service-name
journalctl -u service-name -f
systemctl restart service-name

Quality Gates

Before completing workflow, verify:

• All scripts pass ShellCheck
• Tests pass with Bats
• Error handling implemented
• Logging configured
• Documentation complete
• Automation scheduled

Related Workflow Bundles

• development - Software development
• cloud-devops - Cloud and DevOps
• security-audit - Security testing
• database - Database operations

Bash Script Generation

• Use when creating a new Bash or POSIX shell script: CLI utilities, automation from manual CLI steps, text-processing (grep/awk/sed), cron or CI helper scripts.
• Capture requirements first: input/output format, error-handling behavior (fail-fast/retry/continue), security and performance constraints, and portability target (Bash vs POSIX sh).
• Map every major design decision to a captured requirement ID; keep assumptions explicit and minimal.
• Template-first is the default for single-purpose CLI utilities; custom generation for multi-command architecture or unusual control flow.
• Standard script shape: shebang and strict mode, usage(), parse_args(), input validation and dependency checks, main workflow functions, predictable exit codes; logging to stderr, data to stdout.
• Validate every generated script (see below) and iterate until clean.
• Full guide: generator/GUIDE.md

Bash Script Validation (ShellCheck)

• Use when checking an existing script: quality, linting, syntax checking, security issues, or shell portability work.
• Run the layered validator: syntax check (bash -n / sh -n), ShellCheck static analysis (system binary or wrapper fallback), then custom security, portability and optimization checks.
• Record the detected shell type, exit code (0 clean, 1 warnings, 2 errors), and all issue lines with ShellCheck codes (SC####) when present.
• Load reference docs only for the issue types actually reported; cite file, line, and root cause for each fix.
• After each batch of fixes, rerun until no new errors appear; document any warnings accepted intentionally and always report the latest exit code.
• Full guide: validator/GUIDE.md

Limitations

• Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
• Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
• Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.