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LFS201 LAB 37.3

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Posts: 5
in LFS201 Class Forum - Discontinued

Can someone tell me what the "set -x" syntax at the beginning of the script on item 6 in this lab means?

#!/bin/bash

set -x

rsync --progress -zvrxH -e "ssh -c blowfish" --delete $*

I looked under the set man page, which explains that it identifies a key sequence that executes a shell command. I'm not really sure what this means or how it is used here.

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  • Posts: 916
    It means turn on debugging, which means echoing all commands
    to the console *before* they are executed, essentially it means verbose.
    You turn off this debug mode with set +x. This is all buried somewhere in the man
    page for bash, not set. It is also discussed in the "debugging" section of the
    bash chapter I'm pretty sure, but I don't have the class in front of me.

    so you often do:

    set -x

    ... some commands

    set +x

    when you want to get more detailed output, often but not exclusively, while debugging
    a script.

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