Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderIt’s good to know which command line tools are idempotent, but I think once you start running automated scripts repeatedly you’re better off with something like Chef where you declaratively define the end state and let chef figure out how to converge upon that state. Taking the “create a directory” example, you would say “I want to end up in a state where this directory is created and has these permissions” and chef will determine if the directory already exists…
Idempotence is achievable elegantly with makesure tool [1] using @reached_if directive [2]. Full disclosure - I’m the author of the tool. [1] https://github.com/xonixx/makesure [2] https://github.com/xonixx/makesure#reached_if
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 988
- Total comments
- 290
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-07-07 | How to write idempotent Bash scriptsFirst breakout · Best thread | kiyanwang | 655 | 189 |
| 2021-12-08 | How to write idempotent Bash scripts (2019)Latest 20+ point return | gautamsomani | 330 | 101 |
| 2023-07-05 | How to write IdemPotent Bash Scripts (2019) | gautamsomani | 3 | 0 |