Compilers for shell scripts

Question

Do you know if there's any tool for compiling bash scripts?

It doesn't matter if that tool is just a translator (for example, something that converts a bash script to a C program), as long as the translated result can be compiled.

I'm looking for something like shc (it's just an example -- I know that shc doesn't work as a compiler). Are there any other similar tools?

Answer 1

A Google search brings up CCsh, but it will set you back $50 per machine for a license.

The documentation says that CCsh compiles Bourne Shell (not bash ...) scripts to C code and that it understands how to replicate the functionality of 50 odd standard commands avoiding the need to fork them.

But CCsh is not open source, so if it doesn't do what you need (or expect) you won't be able to look at the source code to figure out why.

Answer 2

I don't think you're going to find anything, because you can't really "compile" a shell script. You could write a simple script that converts all lines to calls to system(3), then "compile" that as a C program, but this wouldn't have a major performance boost over anything you're currently using, and might not handle variables correctly. Don't do this.

The problem with "compiling" a shell script is that shell scripts just call external programs.