Questions tagged [quoting]
Strings are typically delimited by quotes, which raises the problem of dealing with strings that include quotes.
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passing parameters to driver
I'm doing a Linux driver tutorial, and I have encountered a problem
with the sample lesson of passing parameters to the driver.
I tried another parameter-passing example I found on the internet
with ...
- 21
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votes
2
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How to escape both single quotes and exclamation marks in bash
I have a long command and I just want to use alias to shorten it. But the command contains single quotes and exclamation marks.
The origin command is ldapsearch -x -H ... -w 'abc!123'.
I tried alias ...
- 103
3
votes
1
answer
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tcsh: Handle spaces in arguments when passing on to another command
I wrote a script that needs to call a command and pass on arguments. My script has its own parameters but some need to be passed through. This fails when arguments to my script have spaces in them.
...
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Why are my strings being truncated including and after an equals sign?
I was writing a shell script for inserting a string value through a Microsoft sqlcmd variable into a Microsoft SQL server database table and noticed some unexpected behavior. It appeared the trailing ...
- 101
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1
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How to use grep string that has double quotes in it
So I'm running a simple alias called vpn which runs a command and has an output, which I put into a .txt file.
If interested to what exactly then here is the alias
alias vpn="docker exec -it ...
- 73
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value of $VAR already contains backtick and/or single quote inside. How to handle it? How to properly pass $VAR to program? [duplicate]
$ bash --version
GNU bash, versione 5.2.26(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
I don't know how to deal with $VAR when its value inside contains single quote (') and/or backtick (`).
I'm in the need of ...
- 33
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1
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I can't grep some inputrc string
bind -p |grep -E "\\e.\":" work
but
bind -p |grep -E "\\e\\C-.\":" don't work
I tried a lot of combination
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1
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450
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ls output display a file named "N'*" as "N'\''*"
System:
Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
GNU bash, version 5.1.16(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
ls (GNU coreutils) 8.32
Situation:
$ touch "N'*"
$ ls
'N'\''*'
"GNU Coreutils - Quoting File ...
- 183
1
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1
answer
120
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bash cd issue with path containing spaces: "too many arguments" [closed]
I created a path with spaces, and when I try to change directory I get "too many arguments" error message despite escaping the spaces or quoting the path :
Here are the tests I made :
# ...
0
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1
answer
43
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Replace string ${FOO} by ${'$'}{BAR} with sed
I have this string occurring N times in a file: ${FOO}
that I have to replace by this string: ${'$'}{BAR}
This is my current state:
sed "s/\\${FOO}/\\${'\\$'}{BAR}/" file.txt but it raises &...
- 471
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3
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How to use a variable in a command inside of a bash file
I use this command directly on our redhat linux server 8.8 and it's working correctly and I get the result I want:
grep '01-FEB-2024' /u01/app/server1/listener_scan/trace/listener_scan.log | awk '{ if ...
- 101
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59
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Why isn't passed quoted $@ a single argument? [duplicate]
Why isn't passed quoted $@ a single argument?
f2()
{
echo "f2: $1"
}
f1()
{
local x=("$@")
f2 "${x[@]}"
}
f1 x y
Invocation:
$ bash t537.sh
f2: ...
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escape in double and single quotation [duplicate]
I am confusing why bash can escape "..." but can't escape '...'? Can some one give me a hint? Thanks
test@test:~$ echo "He said, \"Hello world\""
He said, "Hello ...
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1
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How can I create a file named "\?$*'ChouMi'*$?\"?
I need to create a file with this exact name "\?$*'ChouMi'*$?\" so that ls would show it as:
$ ls | cat -e
"\?$*'ChouMi'*$?\"$
$
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1
vote
1
answer
99
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Why does -n with unquoted variable containing empty string return true? [duplicate]
From man bash:
-n string
True if the length of string is non‐zero.
Examples:
# expected
$ var=""; [ -n "$var" ]; echo $?
1
# unexpected?
$ var=""; [ -n $var ]; echo ...
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votes
1
answer
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How to proberly deal with quotes in filenames when using variables/arrays including the filenames in bash? [duplicate]
I have been working on a bash script for a few days and got stuck with filenames including single and double quotes.
Give I want to iterate over the following files in a directory:
'file1.txt'
'file2....
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In the nullmailer `remotes` configuration file, how do I quote single quotes in the password?
I'd like to use nullmailer to have my Debian (bullseye and bookworm) systems send system-generated email messages to the appropriate recipient. nullmailer is configured (among others) by the file /etc/...
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Linux program to quote filename only when necessary?
Consider having these directories and files:
$ tree /tmp/test
/tmp/test
├── dir
│ ├── file_normal
│ ├── file with "double quote
│ ├── file with 'single quote
│ ├── file with space
│ └── ...
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What is the difference between quotes wrap around only the option value vs quotes wrap around the option name and option value?
What is the difference between
quotes wrap around only the option value
eg: grep --file="grep pattern file.txt" *
vs
quotes wrap around the option name and option value
eg: grep "--...
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60
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How can I edit matching files if the paths contain whitespace in bash?
I sometimes grep (or rg aka ripgrep or ag aka silversearcher) for things and then want to edit the matching files. For the editor part I use bash's history.
~$ rg someThing
./path/to/some/file.txt
1:...
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129
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how to write function with nested commands [duplicate]
I'm trying to write a find and cd function like so:
findcd () {
cd "$(dirname "$(find '$1' -type '$2' -name '$3')")"
}
to be called like so:
find . f [FILE_NAME]
But it's ...
- 243
1
vote
1
answer
178
views
Run `git commit -m` with single quotes in zsh
I sometimes use characters such as ! and $ in commit messages, they need to be manually escaped, but not if you use single quotes like this git commit -m 'My $message here!'. I tried to write a ...
- 13
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votes
2
answers
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views
Bash reads quotes inside a variable as text, not quotes? Is "Implicit quoting" a thing in Bash?
I've got a bash script that cleans up the mail queue periodically. For Reasons, we've elected to delete any email to @mms.att.net and other email2SMS gateways that are over 9 hours in the queue and ...
- 1,791
0
votes
1
answer
231
views
Unable to resolve parameter inside json
I'm using a curl command inside a script (edm.ksh) to retrieve some data from an API, it requires a password in a JSON like {"password":"myPassword"}. Now, myPassword is not ...
7
votes
2
answers
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views
Echoing "!" inside a string does some weird things [duplicate]
If I type in this:
echo "Hello, World!"
I don't know the name of it, but it prompts me for the next line. You know the PS2 thing. Or if you type echo \ and press Enter.
Why?
Well I know ...
- 1,034
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1
answer
68
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Using a variable in between ' 's
I have a bash script with a line that was originally this
convert '%d.jpg[1-300]' combined.pdf
Uses convert from Imagemagick to strap a load of sequentially numbered jpgs in to a PDF.
I've written a ...
0
votes
2
answers
190
views
Why is echo "\*" the same as echo "\\*"
Title.
echo "\*" has the exact same output as echo "\\*", \*. I am using GNU bash 5.2.15.
I expected echo "\\*" to output \*, but I do not know why echo "\*" ...
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votes
2
answers
494
views
Choose columns with sort and cut in a csv with a comma delimiter ',' ignoring data on quotes with comma "text,text"
I am parsing a huge csv file with rows and columns with different parameters. However, some fields contain large descriptions within quotes that contain commas. How can I choose columns with sort and ...
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vote
3
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377
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Removing directories with spaces in their directory paths
I'm on macOS. I have many directories at paths that looks like this:
./FirstName SecondName/A Multi Word Title/Contents/Index/files
I want to remove ALL the Index directories and their contents. I ...
- 11
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votes
2
answers
205
views
Show quotes with echo inside bash -c
I am trying to echo I say "Hello, World!" with bash -c. This is (some of) what I have tried:
$ bash -c "echo I say \"Hello, World"'!'"\""
$ bash -c "echo I ...
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votes
3
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Is it possible to print a command so that the output can be parsed to create the same command?
The question may sound quite complicated, but in fact it is not! Consider:
% f() { echo "$@"; }
% f a
a
% f cmd -o"value with space"
cmd -ovalue with space
% f cmd -ovalue with ...
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1
answer
385
views
Problem with single quote in Bash [duplicate]
I have a sh script for initializing dzen2, and I want to use Source Code Pro font to use there. Here's the code...
param="-p -dock -fn 'Source Code Pro-10'"
# the generated_output function ...
- 77
1
vote
1
answer
68
views
Why does enclosing a command in double quotes affect aliases?
I have an alias rm='/bin/rm -i' and I know that if I type "rm" filename in the command line, the alias will be ignored somehow and the normal rm command without the -i flag will be called, ...
1
vote
1
answer
3k
views
How do I quote square brackets in Ansible variable value for regexp parameter?
I use the ansible.builtin.lineinfile module to modify a PHP-FPM pool configuration file. How should I quote the square brackets (annot.: or other special characters) in a value of a variable for the ...
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votes
2
answers
647
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How to print a double quote in POSIX scripting?
So far, I've been using "\"" to print a double quote:
$ x="abc def"
$ echo "x=\"$x\""
x="abc def"
However, it seems like that behavior is ...
- 3,132
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votes
1
answer
402
views
Why is "${1-"$var"}" (option 6 down below) not mentioned in POSIX?
The only reference I could find in the spec is this:
It would be desirable to include the statement "The characters from an enclosed "${" to the matching '}' shall not be affected by ...
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votes
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views
rsync does not exclude specified directory starting with a hash character (#)
I am trying to exclude the #recycle directory with rsync:
$ rsync -Hauv -h -P --exclude '#recycle/' --exclude @eaDir/ --exclude '.DS_Store*' --exclude desktop.ini user1@src_server:/volume2/...
- 2,199
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votes
1
answer
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Getting jq error when using variable in command line
I am using jq to get the tag_name index with the script:
curl \
https://api.github.com/repos/checkstyle/checkstyle/releases \
-H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
-o /var/tmp/cs-...
2
votes
1
answer
132
views
Any shell where expansions are turned off without escaping or quoting?
Say, with zsh one can prefix a command with noglob to "turn off filename generation (globbing)".
I'm looking for a shell where similar approach can be used to disable not only globbing but ...
- 6,270
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3
answers
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How to use jq to return information to the shell, taking whitespace into account?
Given this file:
$ cat fruits.json
[
{ "name": "apple" },
{ "name": "banana\nfofanna" },
{ "name": "my kiwi" }
]
how can one use jq ...
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How Can I Interpret Quoted Wildcards
I am writing a shell script and I need to interpret quoted wildcards.
"R Programming*"
I do not want the * asterisk to be taken literally.
I want it to be interpreted as a wildcard.
"R ...
- 333
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votes
1
answer
5k
views
What are curly quotes and can I use them in my code?
Somehow curly quotes got into my code and I'm getting unexpected behavior
#!/bin/sh
if [ foo = ‘foo’ ]; then
echo yes
else
echo no
fi
I would expect this to echo yes but instead it echoes no.
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1
answer
942
views
How to properly use quotes for a bash function?
I am trying to define the following bash function in my .bashrc file:
function myfind() {
find $1 -not -path venv -not -path .tox -name "$2" | xargs grep -n "$3"
}
which is ...
- 5,730
1
vote
2
answers
7k
views
unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
I have created a script to export CSV data to mysql table.
#!/bin/bash
cd /data/NEW
for f in User*
do
mysql --user="root" --password="user@123" -e "LOAD DATA LOCAL ...
- 83
3
votes
1
answer
278
views
Recursively renaming apostrophs ' in filenames (Bash)
Need to remove apostrophes from files. I have tried several approaches, also from Stackexchange.
I am on a Synology NAS, so I don't have Python, or Perl and furthermore I have to exclude certain ...
2
votes
2
answers
133
views
Test fails (correctly) on command line, but succeeds (incorrectly) in script
For the sake of this question, assume that the glob /a/b/c/* produces no matches.
This means that the following test should fail (in other words, it should produce a non-zero $?):
[[ -n /a/b/c/*(#qN) ]...
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2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
pass long html string as argument to bash script (Filename too long)
I am passing an html string as an input to a bash script:
Script.py
def bash(commandStr):
subprocess.Popen(commandStr, shell=True, executable="/bin/bash")
def sendmail(subject, to, ...
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2
votes
2
answers
892
views
Escape variable for zsh's `print -P`
I was looking for a way to escape a variable containing format specifiers and special characters like quotes, backslashes and line breaks so that when passing it to print -P it'll print out literally.
...
- 3,724
2
votes
1
answer
58
views
Why isn't the `else` arm executed in this Bash script (for loop through an array)?
The following code is meant to look for subdirectories in ~/Downloads. I run it with . ./script.sh. It will find them even when the user submits an incomplete name.
#!/usr/bin/bash
echo -e "\...
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0
votes
1
answer
57
views
Why "$(findmnt | grep "\""proc"\"" | head -n 1)" is zero-length? (what is incorrect with escaping double quotes with `"\""` here?)
I'm surprised that:
$ if [ -n "$(findmnt | grep "\""proc"\"" | head -n 1)" ]; then echo 1; else echo 2; fi
2
I've used "\"" before IIRC after ...
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