CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashshellecho
ray
ray

Reputation: 65

bash variable with hash value assigned

I have a variable that has a hash value assigned to it. For example :

hash=$1$qGqTE/jV$syM.7qpaKlCTsBXOYu2op/

now when I do echo $hash in bash it returns:

/jV.7qpaKlCTsBXOYu2op/

How do I have hash value not escape any characters? or have echo $hash return the entire string $1$qGqTE/jV$syM.7qpaKlCTsBXOYu2op/?

Any help is highly appreciated.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 900

Answers (1)

John1024
John1024

Reputation: 113814

The definition needs single quotes:

$ hash='$1$qGqTE/jV$syM.7qpaKlCTsBXOYu2op/'
$ echo "$hash"
$1$qGqTE/jV$syM.7qpaKlCTsBXOYu2op/

Without the single quotes, the shell performs variable substitution and the result depends on the value returned by $1, $qGqTE and $syM when the definition statement is executed.

I also added double-quotes to the echo statement. This stops the shell from performing word splitting and pathname expansion. While it may be unlikely that a hash value would be affected by these, it is safer to use the double quotes. As an example of the potential problem:

$ hash='/bin/le*'
$ echo $hash
/bin/less /bin/lessecho /bin/lessfile /bin/lesskey /bin/lesspipe
$ echo "$hash"
/bin/le*

As you can see, in this case, echo $hash performs pathname expansion and returns a list of files. echo "$hash", however, works as desired. To avoid surprises such as this, it is best to put references to shell variables in double quotes.

Upvotes: 3

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