Do I need Bash?

If you know you will have Bash available on the systems where your shell script will run, you should use it! Its features make programming in shell script easier and safer, and it is by far the most popular kind of shell script, with many people reading and writing it. Many people think that Bash is the only kind of shell script.

Even if your shell script is simple today, you might need to add more to it tomorrow, and a Bash feature might be exactly the thing you need at that time.

However, if your shell script might need to run on a system where Bash may not be installed and cannot be installed for your script, then you may need to limit yourself to the POSIX shell features. Check your system's documentation to determine what style of shell script you will have to write in order for your script to run.