How can I echo some text that contains characters such as $, !, ' and " without modyfing the text itself, with no escape sequences?

Question

An example of what I'm trying to achieve:

echo "BSPDIR := "${@os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(d.getVar('FILE', True)) + '/..')}"" >> somefile.txt

I want the whole text in the outermost quotes inside "somefile.txt", and not have to modify it with escape sequences. I don't mind using something else other than echo.

I appreciate any input. ;-)

Also you could use [printf](https://linuxize.com/post/bash-printf-command/). That's an easy one. — Rishikesh, Jul 27 '21 at 00:25

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '21 at 00:14

3

You can use a "here document":

cat >> somefile.txt << "EOF"
BSPDIR := "${@os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(d.getVar('FILE', True)) + '/..')}"
EOF

answered Jul 27 '21 at 00:14

that other guy

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 27 '21 at 05:46

0

One simple thing you can do is to use single quotes. This way, the special characters will be considered as literal ones. Have a look at here.

echo 'BSPDIR := "${@os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(d.getVar('FILE', True)) + '/..')}"'

answered Jul 27 '21 at 05:46

nino

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This does not work when the text itself contains single quotes. In this case, the original single quotes disappear. – that other guy Jul 30 '21 at 16:02

How can I echo some text that contains characters such as $, !, ' and " without modyfing the text itself, with no escape sequences?

2 Answers2