Writing shell scripts without boilerplate

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node shell scripts can be written in TypeScript and run without any boilerplate. All you need is to install ts-node globally and set the appropriate shebang.

For example, the following will work in an empty directory without any node_modules or other configuration files:

# The latest npm v7 installs peer dependencies by default, so this is all you need
$ npm install -g ts-node

Create the following file and give it execute permission:

#!/usr/bin/env ts-node
import fs from 'fs';

// hey this is line 4

const source = fs.readFileSync(__filename, 'utf8');
console.log(source.split('\n')[3]);
// Uncomment this to prove that typechecking works
// const num: number = source;

// Requires a modern `target` and `lib`, but `ts-node` will set these automatically on modern node versions
const bigint = 100n;
console.dir(bigint);

Run it:

$ ./foo.ts
// hey this is line 4
100n

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