Display bash script with variables expanded

Question

How can you display how a bash script would look like with the variables expanded?

I want see how what the script would actually execute, without doing any damage.

Answer 1

prefix your commands with echo?

Answer 2

You can use the -x option of bash as:

$bash -x myscript.sh

Answer 3

There are three relevant options:

• -n - do not execute
• -v - show the code as it is read
• -x - show the code as it is executed

AFAIK, you can't see the expanded variables with -n in effect, but you can't avoid executing code unless -n is in effect. So, roughly, you have to execute the script to see the expanded variables.

Answer 4

If you don't execute the variable assignments then there's nothing to expand.