Idk about lua, but uv single file python scripts (search the phrase) may be highly relevant for you. Or pure python, if you don't need to pull in any dependencies.
Python startup times suck though. On my system `python3 -c 'print("hello world")'` takes 60-70ms. In contrast equivalents with bash or lua both are in 1-2ms range. The difference is definitely noticeable.
Know your tools. If you're writing a script you run once in a while, 60-70ms is meaningless. If you're running it 10x a minute or more, sure reach for that fast startup language.
As comments here suggest, lua isn't much of a bash replacement. Happy to hear your alternatives and suggestions for bash.
I try to keep very few programming rules, but one which has emerged over time is "no python unless absolutely necessary" (precisely because of the thing you hinted at- the dependency problem, which I've run into one time too many, but also, the whole concept of there being only 1 way to do things which is kind of enforced just always rubbed me the wrong way)
But yes, in theory, that might be nice! There's also the Python-powered shell, Xonsh, which I can't use either.
Dependency problems are mainly resolved with uv - try it.
1 way to do things - not sure what you mean. It's a general purpose language, if you dont like something there's probably a different library that may do it the way you like (eg, don't like exceptions, use a library that mimics rust style Result values; don't like oop, don't do oop, functional programming is certainly possible in python), or easy enough to start creating your own private utility libraries that do things your way.
Xonsh was okay. Idk if I'd use it again. I'd probably just use python to invoke external cli programs using subprocess. I used xonsh for scripting before. I recall it having a slightly slow start up - I launch shell frequently so that's a no-go for me to use as my default shell.
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And I looked at alternative scripting languages. Racket, D (has a single file script mode), ocaml, etc. Honestly python seemed good enough, even with its warts, especially with uv to manage deps without a whole formal project needing to be setup for a script. Stwp up from bash. Most of my use cases are fine with argparse + subprocesses + a unix shebang at the top + "chmod +x", with uv handy if I need a external library.
Btw: MicroPython is also available as a binary for all the usual operating systems. I’ve once made a few scripts and some .sh and .cmd files to launch them using the bundled micropython binary.
