How to escape single quote in ARM template

Question

Given the following resource in an AzureRM template, how would one encode the single quote in the commandToExecute part?

{
  "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions",
  "name": "[concat(variables('vmNameMaster'), copyIndex(), '/sethost')]",
  "apiVersion": "2015-06-15",
  "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
  "copy": {
      "name": "extensionLoopNode",
      "count": "[variables('masterCount')]"
  },
  "dependsOn": [
      "[concat('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/', variables('vmNameMaster'), copyIndex(),'/extensions/DockerExtension')]"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "publisher": "Microsoft.OSTCExtensions",
    "type": "CustomScriptForLinux",
    "typeHandlerVersion": "1.4",
    "settings": {
      "fileUris": [ ],
      "commandToExecute": "[concat('/bin/bash -c \'echo \"export DOCKER_HOST=:2375\" >> /home/', parameters('adminUsername') ,'/.profile\'')]",
      "timestamp": 123456789
    }
  }
},

Have you tried escaping using \. i.e. "commandToExecute": "[concat('/bin/bash -c \'echo \"export DOCKER_HOST=:2375\" >> /home/\', parameters(\'adminUsername\') ,\'/.profile\'')]" — Steve Ford, Nov 30 '15 at 12:57

Eric Cote · Answer 1 · 2017-05-02T19:10:09.570

63

You escape Azure ARM functions in the same way as with VB strings: you simply double the single quote characters.

[concat('This is a ''quoted'' word.')]

outputs

This is a 'quoted' word.

Double quotes still needs to be escaped from JSON.

 [concat('''single'' and \"double\" quotes.')]

outputs

'single' and "double" quotes.

edited May 02 '17 at 19:10

answered May 02 '17 at 18:57

Eric Cote

851
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11

This should be the accepted answer as the currently accepted answer is not as elegant. – zurebe-pieter Apr 23 '18 at 16:00
3

Unfortunately, Visual Studio will view this as an error: Expected a comma. It may work, but you will have to ignore the red squiggle. A lot of people will find this unacceptable. – friggle Jan 29 '20 at 21:54
2

this didn't work for me. So I'll have to resort to the less elegant solution :) – Thiago Passos Aug 28 '20 at 14:29
While deploying resources in Azure Synapse using ARM templates I found that [concat('This is a ''quoted'' word.')] became "This is a ''quoted'' word" for some annoying reason. The accepted answer worked in that case. – Alexander Kvist Jul 17 '23 at 12:28

score 18 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 14 '16 at 19:08

18

I've worked around this with a variable:

"variables": {
    "singleQuote": "'",
},
...
"settings": {
    "fileUris": [],
    "commandToExecute": "[concat('/bin/bash -c ', variables('singleQuote'), 'echo \"export DOCKER_HOST=:2375\" >> /home/', parameters('adminUsername') ,'/.profile', variables('singleQuote'))]",
}

It isn't elegant but it works.

edited Dec 14 '16 at 19:08

Scott Weldon

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answered May 18 '16 at 07:39

Jason Stangroome

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Thanks for this, saved me a bunch of time – Alex Marshall Jun 02 '16 at 16:06
5

how is this an answer when `''` is? – 4c74356b41 Sep 01 '17 at 13:01

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered May 28 '19 at 09:46

2

In DevOps release pipeline, for APIM policy, use & quote; to escape quotes within an expression,

<when condition='@(context.Variables.GetValueOrDefault&lt;bool&gt;(&quot;isAuthOk&quot;))' />

answered May 28 '19 at 09:46

usman shaheen

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score -4 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 30 '15 at 07:03

it is not necessary encode the single quote in the commandToExecute part. The json segment below has been validated as valid json in http://jsonlint.com/

{
    "type": "Microsoft.Compute / virtualMachines / extensions ",
    "name": "[concat(variables('vmNameMaster'), copyIndex(), '/sethost')]",
    "apiVersion": "2015-06-15",
    "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
    "copy": {
        "name": "extensionLoopNode",
        "count": "[variables('masterCount')]"
    },
    "dependsOn": [
        "[concat('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/', variables('vmNameMaster'), copyIndex(),'/extensions/DockerExtension')]"
    ],
    "properties": {
        "publisher": "Microsoft.OSTCExtensions",
        "type": "CustomScriptForLinux",
        "typeHandlerVersion": "1.4",
        "settings": {
            "fileUris": [],
            "commandToExecute": "[concat('/bin/bash -c 'echo \"export DOCKER_HOST=:2375\" >> /home/', parameters('adminUsername') ,'/.profile'')]",
            "timestamp": 123456789
        }
    }
}

What is the error you get and what is your ARM template json schema? — juvchan, Nov 30 '15 at 12:18
here is the schema: http://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#. Problem is, arm will recognize the single quote as its own processing directive ... — david, Feb 22 '17 at 08:18
this will not work as un-escaped single quotes are reserved for template functions in ARM templates. — Nandun, Feb 07 '19 at 23:04

How to escape single quote in ARM template

4 Answers4

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