Bash script - Not able to execute command with special characters stored in a variable

Asked Aug 02 '18 at 17:28

Active Aug 02 '18 at 17:28

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In my bash script, I store a curl command in a variable:

MYCOMMAND="curl -n https://gerrit.myCompany.com/a/changes/?q=project:xyzProject+branch:master+ownerin:abcGroup\"&\"n=20"

Note that the query needs to be appended with "&"n=someNumber in order to limit the number of results returned by the gerrit server.

Now if I echo my variable everything seems fine:

echo "my command is " $MYCOMMAND
my command is  curl -n https://gerrit.myCompany.com/a/changes/?q=project:xyzProject+branch:master+ownerin:abcGroup"&"n=20

Infact if I copy this output and directly paste it in the script OR give it on the command prompt it works very well and I get my required gerrit query output

But if I run it directly from the variable it throws error "--"n" is not a valid option

$MYCOMMAND
"--"n" is not a valid option

I am very much puzzled by this behavior. Can someone help?

asked Aug 02 '18 at 17:28

Anshuman Manral

2

Check this: https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/050 – codeforester Aug 02 '18 at 17:30
I copied your command into a script and was able to execute the command exactly as you tried. No error for me. I have curl version 7.54.0. – EJK Aug 02 '18 at 17:37
You might want to try `eval $MYCOMMAND` as a different way of executing the curl command. – EJK Aug 02 '18 at 17:40
1

@EJK Please don't use or recommend `eval` for this sort of thing -- it's a massive bug magnet. – Gordon Davisson Aug 02 '18 at 19:52

Bash script - Not able to execute command with special characters stored in a variable

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