Command to escape a string in bash

bash escaping
User1 picture User1 · May 18, 2010 · Viewed 122.2k times · Source

I need a bash command that will convert a string to something that is escaped. Here's an example:

echo "hello\world" | escape | someprog

Where the escape command makes "hello\world" into "hello\\\world". Then, someprog can use "hello\\world" as it expects. Of course, this is a simplified example of what I will really be doing.

Answer

Paused until further notice. picture Paused until further notice. · May 18, 2010

In Bash:

printf "%q" "hello\world" | someprog

for example:

printf "%q" "hello\world"
hello\\world

This could be used through variables too:

printf -v var "%q\n" "hello\world"
echo "$var"
hello\\world

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