Data Pipeline

Nushell's data-first approach elevates shell scripting to a new level of clarity and precision.

- By Marcin Gastol

Traditional shells operate on unstructured text, often requiring brittle parsing. Nushell replaces that with structured data pipelines, enabling consistent, reliable commands that treat output as typed tables, records, and lists. Nushell (often called Nu) is a modern shell designed for working with structured data, built in Rust, and inspired by Unix's pipeline philosophy. Unlike traditional shells that pass text streams, Nushell pipelines pass structured data (tables, records, lists), allowing you to filter, sort, and query information without tedious string parsing. This makes Nu especially powerful for developers and system administrators who frequently work with JSON, YAML, CSV, and other data formats.

Installation and Configuration on Ubuntu

Nushell can be installed on Ubuntu in multiple ways (Apt repository, Snap, or building from source). Here I will focus on the Apt repository method, which is straightforward and keeps Nushell up to date via apt. Alternatively, you can use Snap or Homebrew [1].

To install Nushell securely on Ubuntu using the official Apt repository, start by adding the GPG key that ensures the packages' authenticity. This key is required by the Apt system to verify that downloaded packages come from a trusted source.

Next, add the Nushell repository to your system's Apt sources list:

This enables your package manager to locate and retrieve Nushell packages from the designated remote repository. Once the repository is configured, update your local package cache so that Apt becomes aware of the newly added Nushell source and can fetch package metadata: