CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.js
Steven Beaupré
Steven Beaupré

Reputation: 21621

How to use double quotes inside double quotes

Consider the following:

var child = require('child_process');
var res = child.execSync("df -l | awk '{t += $2} END {printf "%d G\n", t / 2^20 + 0.5}'");

I'm getting a syntax error (the " in printf are at fault here).

I tried to escape using \", to no avail.

Using: "df -l | awk '{t += $2} END {printf \"%d G\n\", t / 2^20 + 0.5}'".

I get:

awk: cmd. line:1: {t += $2} END {printf "%d G
awk: cmd. line:1:                       ^ unterminated string

What is the syntactically correct way to proceed here?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1431

Answers (1)

Maxim Mazurok
Maxim Mazurok

Reputation: 4128

var res = child.execSync("df -l | awk \'{t += $2} END {printf \"%d G\\n\", t / 2^20 + 0.5}\'");

works, tested.

The problem was with \n. It should be \\n. You can debug any shell task like this: console.log(SHELL_COMMAND) and then mannually run output string.

For example, this:

var child = require('child_process');
var cmd = "df -l | awk '{t += $2} END {printf \"%d G\n\", t / 2^20 + 0.5}'";
console.log(cmd)
var res = child.execSync(cmd);

will output in console and try to run this:

df -l | awk '{t += $2} END {printf "%d G
", t / 2^20 + 0.5}'

which makes no sense.

Upvotes: 7

Related Questions