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I'm starting to come around to that view, especially since shell is an unusually productive REPL. What are the "right circumstances" for a shell script in your experience?

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Wrapper functions. If you want to extend or modify the functionality of already existing tools, but without altering them too much, so it wouldn't be worth to be a new tool on its own.

Admittedly, its not always apparent. I think a general rule of thumb for me is if I can effectively write the script in my mind ahead of time. Anything beyond that and I might regret choosing a shell script for the purpose.

Sometimes a shell script just proves a concept out and is then rewritten later in a production language.

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