CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashcommand-line-arguments
ShitalSavekar
ShitalSavekar

Reputation: 379

how do I pass ' [single quote character] as argument in linux [bash shell]?

I've abc.py file which accepts argument -p [password] & -c [command]. Now I can run this file as follows :

./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c 'ifconfig'

a!s!d!f is my password. As password contains ! character, so I have to send it as argument in ' '. I tried to send it in " " but didn't work.

Now I want to run this code as follows :

./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c './abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c 'ifconfig''

I'm giving ./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c 'ifconfig' as a argument to abc.py

The problem is, I'm unable to send ' characher as an argument to abc.py

I need this ' character to be sent as input.

I tried using \ escape character as:

./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c './abc.py -p \'a!s!d!f\' -c \'ifconfig\''

But not working. How do I do this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 5973

Answers (2)

piokuc
piokuc

Reputation: 26184

You need to quote both ' and !:

./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c "./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c 'ifconfig'"

$ cat p.py
import sys
print sys.argv

In Korn shell:

$ python p.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c "./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c 'ifconfig'"
['p.py', '-p', 'a!s!d!f', '-c', "./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c 'ifconfig'"]

In bash ! is not treated specially only if enclosed in single quotes, so it can be done like this:

$ python p.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c './abc.py -p '"'"'a!s!d!f'"'"' -c config'
['p.py', '-p', 'a!s!d!f', '-c', "./abc.py -p 'a!s!d!f' -c config"]

Notice that the result is different then when you quote the whole string with double quotes:

$ python p.py -c "./abcy.py -p 'a\!s\!d\!f' -c 'ifconfig'"
['p.py', '-c', "./abcy.py -p 'a\\!s\\!d\\!f' -c 'ifconfig'"]

Upvotes: 2

bonsaiviking
bonsaiviking

Reputation: 5995

In Bash (which follows the POSIX shell standard), single quotes preserve every character literally, which means there is no way to escape contents within single quotes. Your choices are:

  1. Concatenate differently-quoted strings by placing them next to each other:

    ./abc.py -c "./abc.py -p '"'a!s!d!f'"' -c 'ifconfig'"

  2. Use double-quotes and escape the ! characters:

    ./abc.py -c "./abcy.py -p 'a\!s\!d\!f' -c 'ifconfig'"

Upvotes: 1

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