Echo command, and then run it? (Like make)

Question

Is there some way to get bash into a sort of verbose mode where, such that, when it\'s running a shell script, it echoes out the command it\'s going to run before running it? T

Answer 1

For extra timestamps and I/O info, consider the annotate-output command from Debian's devscripts package:

annotate-output echo hello

Output:

13:19:08 I: Started echo hello
13:19:08 O: hello
13:19:08 I: Finished with exitcode 0

Now look for a file that doesn't exist, and note the E: for STDERR output:

annotate-output ls nosuchfile

Output:

13:19:48 I: Started ls nosuchfile
13:19:48 E: ls: cannot access 'nosuchfile': No such file or directory
13:19:48 I: Finished with exitcode 2