How can I escape an arbitrary string for use as a command line argument in Bash?

by

If you want to securely quote anything for Bash, you can use its built-in printf %q formatting:

cat strings.txt:

yes
no
Hello, world
C:\Program Files\
"
\
\\
\\\
\\\\
\\\\\
"\
"\T
"\\T
!1
!A
"!\/'"
"Jeff's!"
$PATH
%PATH%
&
<>|&^
*@$$A$@#?-_

cat quote.sh:

#!/bin/bash
while IFS= read -r string
do
    printf '%q\n' "$string"
done < strings.txt

./quote.sh:

yes
no
Hello\,\ world
C:\\Program\ Files\\
\"
\\
\\\\
\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\
\"\\
\"\\T
\"\\\\T
\!1
\!A
\"\!\\/\'\"
\"Jeff\'s\!\"
\$PATH
%PATH%
\&
\<\>\|\&\^
\*@\$\$A\$@#\?-_

These strings can be copied verbatim to for example echo to output the original strings in strings.txt.

More Related Contents:

  1. Convert Bash script to Perl/VBS/any other windows compatible language [closed]
  2. How to use shell variables in perl command call in a bash shell script?
  3. Print lines from one file that are not contained in another file
  4. Remove Text between two Strings
  5. Redirecting the perl script
  6. How can I troubleshoot my Perl CGI script?
  7. Why are Perl 5’s function prototypes bad?
  8. How is Perl’s @INC constructed? (aka What are all the ways of affecting where Perl modules are searched for?)
  9. How can I install Perl modules without root privileges?
  10. How do I compare two strings in Perl?
  11. What is the difference between ‘my’ and ‘our’ in Perl?
  12. Difference between &function and function() in perl [duplicate]
  13. How do you round a floating point number in Perl?
  14. Why do I have to specify the -i switch with a backup extension when using ActivePerl?
  15. How can I run Perl system commands in the background?
  16. Why is this program valid? I was trying to create a syntax error
  17. How can I convert the stringified version of array reference to actual array reference in Perl?
  18. Find size of an array in Perl
  19. What does the -> arrow do in Perl?
  20. What’s the difference between iterating over a file with foreach or while in Perl?
  21. What’s the differences between system and backticks and pipes in Perl?
  22. In Perl, how can I find the index of a given value in an array?
  23. How to ignore ‘Certificate Verify Failed’ error in perl?
  24. How do I make Perl scripts recognize command-line parameters in the Win32 cmd console?
  25. What does shift() do in Perl?
  26. Which framework should I use to write modules? [closed]
  27. How can I treat command-line arguments as UTF-8 in Perl?
  28. How do I capture Perl’s STDOUT in a variable?
  29. Is object oriented exception handling in Perl worth it?
  30. How can I check whether my Perl installation is 32 or 64 bit?

Leave a Comment