Updated on May 17, 2022 in #linux

ShellCheck's -x Flag Lets You Source Files without SC1091 Warnings

This is really handy to avoid having to add a source path as a comment or ignore SC1091 every time you source a file.

I’m a really big fan of ShellCheck. Often times your shell scripts might source in another file. When you call shellcheck -x myscript instead of shellcheck myscript that lets ShellCheck know to check the path of sourced files without explicitly annotating them with a comment.

It will still detect source calls with incorrect paths too because it tests the path by default when using -x. If you don’t use -x chances are you’ve found yourself adding shellcheck specific comments like # shellcheck disable=SC1091 to every file you source.

# Demo Video

Timestamps

• 0:06 – Demonstrating the SC1091 warning and how to fix it
• 1:06 – Using the -x flag to avoid annotating every time you source a file
• 1:32 – I might alias shellcheck to always run with -x
• 2:07 – The -x flag still tests to make sure the sourced file exists

Reference Links

• https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck
• https://www.shellcheck.net/wiki/SC1091

Will using -x make its way into all of your shellcheck commands? Let us know!