CODEWITHSUNDEEP
jsonbashgithub
Ryan Tanay
Ryan Tanay

Reputation: 3

bash parsing multi word string to JSON value

A bash script for creating new github repos from the command line works unless given multi word descriptions:

REPOSTRING={\"name\":\"$1\",\"description\":\"$2\",\"license_template\":\"mit\"}
echo $REPOSTRING
curl https://api.github.com/user/repos?access_token=xxx -d $REPOSTRING

Calling the script script testrepo testdescription works as expected, but script testrepo "description with spaces" errors out with:

{
  "message": "Problems parsing JSON",
  "documentation_url": "https://developer.github.com/v3"
}
curl: (6) Could not resolve host: with
curl: (3) [globbing] unmatched close brace/bracket in column 33

It appears the spaces are breaking up the REPOSTRING even though the echo in the script shows REPOSTRING as

{"name":"testrepo","description":"description with spaces","license_template":"mit"}

with the spaces appearing within double quotes.

Is there something special I need to do with the $2 in the REPOSTRING assignment that I'm missing? I've attempted it as

REPOSTRING={\"name\":\"$1\",\"description\":\""$2"\",\"license_template\":\"mit\"}

but quoting $2 explicitly caused no change.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 226

Answers (2)

Charles Duffy
Charles Duffy

Reputation: 296049

If you want to be guaranteed that output will be accepted by JSON parser, use a tool that knows how to generate JSON -- such as jq:

repo_string=$(jq --arg name "$1" \
                 --arg description "$2" \
                 '.name=$name | .description=$description' \
                 <<<'{"license_template": "mit"}')

Other approaches might have trouble with conditions including:

  • Literal " characters (which need to be escaped to be treated as data rather than syntax
  • Literal backslashes (which will be treated as syntax rather than data when seen by a JSON parser unless, again, escaped).

Upvotes: 2

Diego Torres Milano
Diego Torres Milano

Reputation: 69426

You have to quote the string assignment:

REPOSTRING="{\"name\":\"$1\",\"description\":\"$2\",\"license_template\":\"mit\"}"

Upvotes: -1

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