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Full Discussion: Arguments in variable vs direct string
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Arguments in variable vs direct string Post 302985499 by Corona688 on Thursday 10th of November 2016 11:45:35 AM
Old 11-10-2016
If you can possibly avoid it, just don't do that - these are all ugly hacks to accommodate something structured inside-out and backwards. But if you absolutely have to, xargs can handle them.

People loathe xargs for processing quotes instead of handling them raw, but that's actually useful here. It will handle quotes but will ignore shell syntax -- which makes it much safer than eval.

Code:
UGLYMESS="a b 'c d' e"
OLDIFS="$IFS"

# Split unquoted strings on newlines and ONLY newlines.
IFS="
"

# xargs printf "%s\n" will print every separate argument or quoted section on its own newline.
# You could set $1=a, $2=b, $3="c d", $4=e
set -- $(echo "$UGLYMESS" | xargs printf "%s\n" )
# ...or put them into an array like this:
ARR=( $(echo "$UGLYMESS" | xargs printf "%s\n" ) )

# Now that we've stored them already split, we can restore IFS.
IFS="$OLDIFS"

Last edited by Corona688; 12-02-2016 at 11:33 AM.. Reason: Typo, missing ) in array
This User Gave Thanks to Corona688 For This Post:
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LEARN ABOUT BSD

xargs

XARGS(1)						      General Commands Manual							  XARGS(1)

NAME

       xargs - construct argument list(s) and execute utility

SYNOPSIS

       xargs [ -t ][[ -x ] -n number ][ -s size ][ utility [ arguments...  ]]

DESCRIPTION

       The  xargs utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited arguments from the standard input and executes the specified utility
       with them as arguments.

       The utility and any arguments specified on the command line are given to the utility upon each invocation, followed by some number  of  the
       arguments read from standard input.  The utility is repeatedly executed until standard input is exhausted.

       Spaces,	tabs  and  newlines  may  be embedded in arguments using single (`` ' '') or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes (``'').  Single
       quotes escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines, up to the matching single quote.  Double quotes  escape  all	non-double
       quote characters, excluding newlines, up to the matching double quote.  Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a back-
       slash.

       The options are as follows:

       -n number Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each invocation of the utility.  An invocation of utility  will
		 use less than number standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the s option) exceeds the specified size or
		 there are fewer than number arguments remaining for the last invocation of utility.  The current  default  value  for	number	is
		 5000.

       -s size	 Set  the  maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to utility.  The sum of the length of the utility name and
		 the arguments passed to utility (including /dev/null terminators) will be less than or equal to this number.  The current default
		 value for size is ARG_MAX - 2048.

       -t	 Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it is executed.

       -x	 Force	xargs  to  terminate  immediately if a command line containing number arguments will not fit in the specified (or default)
		 command line length.

       If no utility is specified, echo(1) is used.

       Undefined behavior may occur if utility reads from the standard input.

       The xargs utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a	command  line  cannot  be  assembled,  utility	cannot	be
       invoked, an invocation of the utility is terminated by a signal or an invocation of the utility exits with a value of 255.

       The xargs utility exits with a value of 0 if no error occurs.  If utility cannot be invoked, xargs exits with a value of 127.  If any other
       error occurs, xargs exits with a value of 1.

SEE ALSO

       echo(1), find(1)

STANDARDS

       The xargs utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2("POSIX") compliant.

								   June 6, 1993 							  XARGS(1)
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