In 2011 I created Bats, a test harness for bash, which went on to have a life of its own: https://github.com/bats-core/bats-core
Now I’m working on a 2026 take on the problem, this time targeting POSIX shell. It’s called Brat (the Brutal Runner for Automated Tests).
Here’s a video showing Brat running its own test suite, first serially, and again using 8 parallel jobs:
Sam Stephenson
npub1tj…q87qz
2026-02-04 17:53:02 UTC
Author Public Key
npub1tjs6ynjklqenx994dzl8my2sn6lktetrdadq053w2xtsjhmm0e5qgq87qzSeen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-02-04 17:53:02 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "ce552c3557b0f855161f54ea464fcf0002b31f3c71c3aff8f41796ab18c2bcfe",
"pubkey": "5ca1a24e56f8333314b568be7d91509ebf65e5636f5a07d22e5197095f7b7e68",
"created_at": 1770227582,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://indieweb.social/@sstephenson/116013634838004631",
"web"
],
[
"imeta",
"url https://cdn.masto.host/indiewebsocial/media_attachments/files/116/013/634/085/399/603/original/b4e46e116a698697.mp4",
"m video/mp4"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://indieweb.social/users/sstephenson/statuses/116013634838004631",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://indieweb.social/users/sstephenson/statuses/116013634838004631",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"-"
]
],
"content": "In 2011 I created Bats, a test harness for bash, which went on to have a life of its own: https://github.com/bats-core/bats-core\n\nNow I’m working on a 2026 take on the problem, this time targeting POSIX shell. It’s called Brat (the Brutal Runner for Automated Tests).\n\nHere’s a video showing Brat running its own test suite, first serially, and again using 8 parallel jobs:\nhttps://cdn.masto.host/indiewebsocial/media_attachments/files/116/013/634/085/399/603/original/b4e46e116a698697.mp4\n",
"sig": "3a678b2ad384d1f1e4432be6c07add9796ec64ce7630c80bd361742b81beac57c8a67eaa61846c9c5271ef90ca544999080863a6d7984de59adb645596cc56c0"
}