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passing string which includes metacharacters

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# 1  
Old 03-10-2009
passing string which includes metacharacters
I'm trying to create a bash script that takes a URL as one of its arguments like this:
Code:
./script.sh http://url.cfm?asdf&asdf=234
variable=$1
echo $variable

I'm having trouble storing the URL because it contains the meta character "&" which is being interpreted... thus when I run the script I get this:

./script.sh: line 11: [1: command not found
http://url.cfm?asdf
# 2  
Old 03-10-2009
Use quotes to protect it:

./script.sh 'http://url.cfm?asdf&asdf=234'
# 3  
Old 03-11-2009
Would there be any way to do it inside the script without protecting (that way I don't have to ask people running the script to remember to quote it out) ?
Last edited by kds1398; 03-11-2009 at 09:40 PM.. Reason: typo
# 4  
Old 03-11-2009
No. The shell is doing this before the script starts to run. Anyone who uses a shell to enter commands should get used to the need to quote special characters. But an alternative might be to have the script ask for the url and read the response directly.
# 5  
Old 03-11-2009
I think reading user input instead of passing it as an argument is just the ticket. Thanks for your assistance.
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