How best to include other scripts?

Solution 1:

I tend to make my scripts all be relative to one another. That way I can use dirname:

#!/bin/sh

my_dir="$(dirname "$0")"

"$my_dir/other_script.sh"

Solution 2:

I know I am late to the party, but this should work no matter how you start the script and uses builtins exclusively:

DIR="${BASH_SOURCE%/*}"
if [[ ! -d "$DIR" ]]; then DIR="$PWD"; fi
. "$DIR/incl.sh"
. "$DIR/main.sh"

. (dot) command is an alias to source, $PWD is the Path for the Working Directory, BASH_SOURCE is an array variable whose members are the source filenames, ${string%substring} strips shortest match of $substring from back of $string

Solution 3:

An alternative to:

scriptPath=$(dirname $0)

is:

scriptPath=${0%/*}

.. the advantage being not having the dependence on dirname, which is not a built-in command (and not always available in emulators)