# ShellCheck

19 Hacker News commenters recommended ShellCheck and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free linter that flags common mistakes and quoting errors in shell scripts, and people recommend it for writing more reliable Bash. Critics say it adds noisy best-practice warnings.

## Why people recommend it

- Works as an editor linter (4 comments): "Integrate Shellcheck into your editor, and you get automated help for writing more reliable Bash." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48874176)) "Possibly the most important tip is to use ShellCheck as a linter on your scripts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49058135)) "I agree completely, if you use a linter like shellcheck" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49073531))
- Catches quoting mistakes and common errors (3 comments): "It also helps you do quoting correctly when using single brackets." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46633559)) "it will generally correctly warn about missing quoting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50061528)) "using Shellcheck to point out common errors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46529948))
- Improves scripts and teaches best practice (3 comments): "Shellcheck was a big game changer at least in terms of learning some of the nuance from a "best practice" standpoint." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47177026)) "Shellcheck catches lots of things and shall really make your Bash scripts better." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47173979)) "It turns a total newbie into a shell master just by iteration." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46211874))
- Long-running, widely trusted tool (3 comments): "I'm using shellcheck since at least 2012/2014." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49074329)) "When unsure, use shellcheck." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46631711)) "I would recommend shellcheck" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47173472))

## What people warn about

- Noisy best-practice warnings (2 comments): "filling my editor with useless warnings about what it believes are best practices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48878275)) "pathological monitoring by shellcheck" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48250361))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Ruff](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ruff.md): 115 recommend
- [Clippy (Rust linter)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clippy.md): 58 recommend
- [ESLint](https://hackerapproved.com/p/eslint.md): 32 recommend
- [Biome](https://hackerapproved.com/p/biome.md): 23 recommend
- [Oxlint](https://hackerapproved.com/p/oxlint.md): 20 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ShellCheck", https://hackerapproved.com/p/shellcheck/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).