Passing Bearer token as variable in bash

Question

I am trying to pass a Bearer token (variable $token)to invoke a job via curl command. However the single quote after the -H is not letting the value of variable $token being passed to curl command.

curl -X POST 'https://server.domain.com/v2/jobs/28723316-9373-44ba-9229-7c796f21b099/runs?project_id=aff59748-260a-476e-9578-b4f4a93e7a92' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Bearer $token  -d { "job_run": {} }'

I get this error:

{"code":400,"error":"Bad Request","reason":"Bearer token format is invalid. Expected: 'Bearer '. Received: 'Bearer $token -d { "job_run": {} }'.","message":"Bearer token is invalid."}

I tried adding like the escape character with the variable $token:

curl -X POST 'https://server.domain.com/v2/jobs/28723316-9373-44ba-9229-7c796f21b099/runs?project_id=aff59748-260a-476e-9578-b4f4a93e7a92' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Bearer "\$token\"  -d { "job_run": {} }'

I get the same error: {"code":400,"error":"Bad Request","reason":"Bearer token format is invalid. Expected: 'Bearer '. Received: 'Bearer "\$token\" -d { "job_run": {} }'.","message":"Bearer token is invalid."}

I tried double quotes as well, it has been a few hours and I am unable to extract he variable value $token within single quotes.

Could some please assist and give me the correct syntax?

Thanks in advance

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13799789/expansion-of-variables-inside-single-quotes-in-a-command-in-bash — Palash Goel, Feb 11 '21 at 07:44
try curl -X POST 'https://server.domain.com/v2/jobs/28723316-9373-44ba-9229-7c796f21b099/runs?project_id=aff59748-260a-476e-9578-b4f4a93e7a92' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Bearer ' $token -d '{ "job_run": {} }' — Ricco D, Feb 11 '21 at 07:45
@RiccoD: That probably won't work, `curl` expects the entire header to be in the same argument, in your example you have `'Authorization: Bearer '` and `$token` as two distinct arguments. — user000001, Feb 11 '21 at 09:49

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 11 '21 at 09:40

The problem here are the quotes. It should be like this:

curl -X POST 'https://server.domain.com/v2/jobs/28723316-9373-44ba-9229-7c796f21b099/runs?project_id=aff59748-260a-476e-9578-b4f4a93e7a92' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H "Authorization: Bearer $token"  -d '{ "job_run": {} }'

In multiline:

curl -X POST 'https://server.domain.com/v2/jobs/28723316-9373-44ba-9229-7c796f21b099/runs?project_id=aff59748-260a-476e-9578-b4f4a93e7a92' \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $token"  \ 
     -d '{ "job_run": {} }'

Specifically, variables in bash aren't interpolated when in single quotes ('). Thus, we set the dynamic string inside double quotes (")

-H "Authorization: Bearer $token"

Also the -H and -d arguments are distinct, they should be quoted separately, in your code you have them combined in a single argument.

You are a genius, this worked a charm, I tried so many things for hours. That was the problem where the variable wasn't get populating within single quotes. Thank you so much!!!. — user3605317, Feb 12 '21 at 02:49

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 07 '22 at 06:33

this works for me

token=$(curl 'https://example.com/v1.2/auths/login' \
-H 'Accept: application/json, text/plain, */*' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{"username":"username","password":"password"}'  | jq '.token')
echo $token

#to remove the double quotes from the token string 
token=`sed -e 's/^"//' -e 's/"$//' <<<"$token"`  

 curl 'https://example.com/otherapi' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/plain, */*' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $token"

Passing Bearer token as variable in bash

2 Answers2