In bash, how do I escape an exclamation mark?
I want to do something like bzr commit -m "It works!". I can sort of escape the exclamation mark by doing bzr commit -m "It works!". However, then my commit message includes the backslash. How do I escape the exclamation mark, while still ignoring the backslash?
bash syntax escape-characters
edited Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
Sathyajith Bhat♦
52.6k29154252
asked Apr 22 '10 at 18:53
Matthew
5,9811462110
add a comment |
I want to do something like bzr commit -m "It works!". I can sort of escape the exclamation mark by doing bzr commit -m "It works!". However, then my commit message includes the backslash. How do I escape the exclamation mark, while still ignoring the backslash?
bash syntax escape-characters
edited Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
Sathyajith Bhat♦
52.6k29154252
asked Apr 22 '10 at 18:53
Matthew
5,9811462110
1
Doingbzr commit -m "It works"!works, too.
– kba
May 18 '13 at 13:59
1
As I noted before the command you put does actually work on it's own :)bzr commit -m "It works!"
– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:26
An even quirkier case with nested quotes: stackoverflow.com/questions/22125658/…
– Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
Sep 2 '15 at 18:08
Though the accepted answer is a good workaround for your commit problems, I feel it's not an answer to the actual issue: Bash history expansion. Please consider accepting Dennis' answer?
– Arjan
Nov 29 '15 at 10:19
add a comment |
I want to do something like bzr commit -m "It works!". I can sort of escape the exclamation mark by doing bzr commit -m "It works!". However, then my commit message includes the backslash. How do I escape the exclamation mark, while still ignoring the backslash?
bash syntax escape-characters
edited Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
Sathyajith Bhat♦
52.6k29154252
asked Apr 22 '10 at 18:53
Matthew
5,9811462110
I want to do something like bzr commit -m "It works!". I can sort of escape the exclamation mark by doing bzr commit -m "It works!". However, then my commit message includes the backslash. How do I escape the exclamation mark, while still ignoring the backslash?
bash syntax escape-characters
bash syntax escape-characters
edited Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
Sathyajith Bhat♦
52.6k29154252
asked Apr 22 '10 at 18:53
Matthew
5,9811462110
edited Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
Sathyajith Bhat♦
52.6k29154252
asked Apr 22 '10 at 18:53
Matthew
5,9811462110
edited Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
Sathyajith Bhat♦
52.6k29154252
edited Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
Sathyajith Bhat♦
52.6k29154252
edited Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
Sathyajith Bhat♦
52.6k29154252
52.6k29154252
asked Apr 22 '10 at 18:53
Matthew
5,9811462110
asked Apr 22 '10 at 18:53
Matthew
5,9811462110
asked Apr 22 '10 at 18:53
Matthew
5,9811462110
5,9811462110
1
Doingbzr commit -m "It works"!works, too.
– kba
May 18 '13 at 13:59
1
As I noted before the command you put does actually work on it's own :)bzr commit -m "It works!"
– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:26
An even quirkier case with nested quotes: stackoverflow.com/questions/22125658/…
– Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
Sep 2 '15 at 18:08
Though the accepted answer is a good workaround for your commit problems, I feel it's not an answer to the actual issue: Bash history expansion. Please consider accepting Dennis' answer?
– Arjan
Nov 29 '15 at 10:19
add a comment |
1
Doingbzr commit -m "It works"!works, too.
– kba
May 18 '13 at 13:59
1
As I noted before the command you put does actually work on it's own :)bzr commit -m "It works!"
– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:26
An even quirkier case with nested quotes: stackoverflow.com/questions/22125658/…
– Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
Sep 2 '15 at 18:08
Though the accepted answer is a good workaround for your commit problems, I feel it's not an answer to the actual issue: Bash history expansion. Please consider accepting Dennis' answer?
– Arjan
Nov 29 '15 at 10:19
1
1
Doing
bzr commit -m "It works"! works, too.– kba
May 18 '13 at 13:59
Doing
bzr commit -m "It works"! works, too.– kba
May 18 '13 at 13:59
1
1
As I noted before the command you put does actually work on it's own :)
bzr commit -m "It works!"– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:26
As I noted before the command you put does actually work on it's own :)
bzr commit -m "It works!"– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:26
An even quirkier case with nested quotes: stackoverflow.com/questions/22125658/…
– Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
Sep 2 '15 at 18:08
An even quirkier case with nested quotes: stackoverflow.com/questions/22125658/…
– Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
Sep 2 '15 at 18:08
Though the accepted answer is a good workaround for your commit problems, I feel it's not an answer to the actual issue: Bash history expansion. Please consider accepting Dennis' answer?
– Arjan
Nov 29 '15 at 10:19
Though the accepted answer is a good workaround for your commit problems, I feel it's not an answer to the actual issue: Bash history expansion. Please consider accepting Dennis' answer?
– Arjan
Nov 29 '15 at 10:19
add a comment |
5 Answers
5
active
oldest
votes
Since you do not depend on bash to expand variables in your commit message you could use single quotes instead. Strings in single quotes are not expanded by bash.
bzr commit -m 'This does work!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:31
Benjamin Bannier
12.7k23737
23
Since the question was "How do I escape an exclamation mark?" and not "How do i not expand an exclamation mark?" I do not think this is valid. There are some times (like when passing apostrophes and exclamation marks in the same command-line) that this does not work. The answer below works much better to do what many people need.
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 17:55
7
@Jann: You are 100% right on this, but I think the issue is here is the one with so many questions on superuser: Do we answer the question to the point, or do we help people solve their specific problem. I think both ways can be useful, and this was looking for help on a specific issue.
– Benjamin Bannier
May 24 '11 at 18:17
touché! This was a specific issue. I just tend to want an answer to my questions to be able to be used in many situations. pS: The reason I even mentioned this was I was needing to pass both an apostrophe and an exclamation mark to a perl program and I needed the below solution. :)
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 18:37
I agree with both Benjamin and Jann but gave a downvote. The title of the question is indexed by search engines and that's how I came here and probably most users come here. That's why I believe it's important that the actual question reflect's the problem behind it. In other forums people are advised (almost forced) to ask precisely what they look for. Answering poorly expressed questions supports sloppiness and that's the exact reason for my downvote here. As a compromise / solution my suggestion is to help adapt the heading so it reflects the actual problem.
– ChristophK
Jan 6 at 10:49
add a comment |
Old question I know, but for future searchers:
You can also use this method if you want double quotes as well as the exclamation:
echo "It's broken"'!'
This works even if the ! is not at the end of the line.
For instance:
echo "hello there"'!'" and goodbye"
Bonus: A similar technique can be used to escape any text in Sh or Bash (with the help of sed): see the first option in this answer. Further, if you have bash-completion installed, you likely have the quote() function available already.
edited May 23 '17 at 12:41
Community♦
1
answered Jun 23 '11 at 19:16
jwd
2,22721513
4
Nice tip, JWD. I didn’t realize bash strings could be concatenated simply by omitting whitespace between them.
– Alan H.
Aug 26 '11 at 21:32
Actually if the exclamation mark is at the end of the string you're in the clearecho "Happy birthday!"will work as expected otherwise you can escape it with a backslash, but the backslash will be printed as well XD Bash is not for the faint of heart :)
– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:24
@h4unt3r: Strange, that is not my experience. For me,echo "Happy Birthday!"outputs 2 lines. The first isecho "Happy birthday"(no exclamation), and the second is "Happy birthday" (again, no exclamation). Do you have history expansion turned on when you do this test?
– jwd
Aug 18 '14 at 21:05
@jwd what version of bash are you running? I always have hist expansion on. Did you accidentally use two !! for your test?
– h4unt3r
Aug 19 '14 at 0:15
@h4unt3r:version 4.1.2(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu), definitely only one!being used. I havehistexpandpresent in$SHELLOPTS. However, I did just try 4.3.18(2)-release on another machine, and it behaves as you described. I guess it was a bug that got fixed.
– jwd
Aug 19 '14 at 20:28
add a comment |
Turn off history expansion:
set +H
or
set +o histexpand
You can add one of those commands to your ~/.bashrc if you usually don't use history expansion.
Bash 4.3 added a special case:
the history expansion character is also treated as quoted if it immediately precedes the closing double quote in a double-quoted string
answered Apr 22 '10 at 18:58
Dennis Williamson
76.1k14129167
Thanks--this worked, but I had to doset +o histexpand, notset -o histexpand. Could you edit your answer to fix this?
– Matthew
Apr 22 '10 at 19:04
Oops, typo, sorry. Fixed.
– Dennis Williamson
Apr 22 '10 at 22:29
excelent! was looking for this for AGES.... thx vm! as escape wont work... I dont want to use single quotes too... I will add this to my.bashrcthx!!, never used!in scripts and for nothing!! it was always troubling...
– Aquarius Power
Jul 18 '13 at 15:19
This is so awesome!echo "@AquariusPower!"
– joehanna
Jun 30 '16 at 0:28
add a comment |
Use single quotes (') instead of double quotes ("). Single quotes turn off all interpretation of the stuff in them, while double quotes only turn off some.
bzr commit -m 'It works!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:32
KeithB
7,70611813
add a comment |
I just now found another way, that will at least work with echoing strings (sentences) you want to punctuate with an exclamation point. It does an end-run, more or less, around Bash histexpand and takes only a bit longer to code.
The hex for an exclamation point, as listed on
http://www.ascii-code.com/, is 21, so if you put x21 at the end of your string, echo -e $foo, make $foo its own expanded echo [ie, foo=$(echo -e "$foo")], what you get when you echo $foo again is the string with an ! at the end. And no switching histexpand either.
Works for sure in Bash 4+. Earlier versions, ymmv.
edited Sep 28 '17 at 12:07
Daniel Böhmer
4551314
answered Nov 23 '11 at 4:28
SilversleevesX
893
Hmmm it does not work for me.
– lzap
Jun 10 '14 at 11:52
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "3"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f133780%2fin-bash-how-do-i-escape-an-exclamation-mark%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
5 Answers
5
active
oldest
votes
5 Answers
5
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Since you do not depend on bash to expand variables in your commit message you could use single quotes instead. Strings in single quotes are not expanded by bash.
bzr commit -m 'This does work!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:31
Benjamin Bannier
12.7k23737
23
Since the question was "How do I escape an exclamation mark?" and not "How do i not expand an exclamation mark?" I do not think this is valid. There are some times (like when passing apostrophes and exclamation marks in the same command-line) that this does not work. The answer below works much better to do what many people need.
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 17:55
7
@Jann: You are 100% right on this, but I think the issue is here is the one with so many questions on superuser: Do we answer the question to the point, or do we help people solve their specific problem. I think both ways can be useful, and this was looking for help on a specific issue.
– Benjamin Bannier
May 24 '11 at 18:17
touché! This was a specific issue. I just tend to want an answer to my questions to be able to be used in many situations. pS: The reason I even mentioned this was I was needing to pass both an apostrophe and an exclamation mark to a perl program and I needed the below solution. :)
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 18:37
I agree with both Benjamin and Jann but gave a downvote. The title of the question is indexed by search engines and that's how I came here and probably most users come here. That's why I believe it's important that the actual question reflect's the problem behind it. In other forums people are advised (almost forced) to ask precisely what they look for. Answering poorly expressed questions supports sloppiness and that's the exact reason for my downvote here. As a compromise / solution my suggestion is to help adapt the heading so it reflects the actual problem.
– ChristophK
Jan 6 at 10:49
add a comment |
Since you do not depend on bash to expand variables in your commit message you could use single quotes instead. Strings in single quotes are not expanded by bash.
bzr commit -m 'This does work!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:31
Benjamin Bannier
12.7k23737
23
Since the question was "How do I escape an exclamation mark?" and not "How do i not expand an exclamation mark?" I do not think this is valid. There are some times (like when passing apostrophes and exclamation marks in the same command-line) that this does not work. The answer below works much better to do what many people need.
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 17:55
7
@Jann: You are 100% right on this, but I think the issue is here is the one with so many questions on superuser: Do we answer the question to the point, or do we help people solve their specific problem. I think both ways can be useful, and this was looking for help on a specific issue.
– Benjamin Bannier
May 24 '11 at 18:17
touché! This was a specific issue. I just tend to want an answer to my questions to be able to be used in many situations. pS: The reason I even mentioned this was I was needing to pass both an apostrophe and an exclamation mark to a perl program and I needed the below solution. :)
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 18:37
I agree with both Benjamin and Jann but gave a downvote. The title of the question is indexed by search engines and that's how I came here and probably most users come here. That's why I believe it's important that the actual question reflect's the problem behind it. In other forums people are advised (almost forced) to ask precisely what they look for. Answering poorly expressed questions supports sloppiness and that's the exact reason for my downvote here. As a compromise / solution my suggestion is to help adapt the heading so it reflects the actual problem.
– ChristophK
Jan 6 at 10:49
add a comment |
Since you do not depend on bash to expand variables in your commit message you could use single quotes instead. Strings in single quotes are not expanded by bash.
bzr commit -m 'This does work!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:31
Benjamin Bannier
12.7k23737
Since you do not depend on bash to expand variables in your commit message you could use single quotes instead. Strings in single quotes are not expanded by bash.
bzr commit -m 'This does work!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:31
Benjamin Bannier
12.7k23737
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:31
Benjamin Bannier
12.7k23737
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:31
Benjamin Bannier
12.7k23737
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:31
Benjamin Bannier
12.7k23737
12.7k23737
23
Since the question was "How do I escape an exclamation mark?" and not "How do i not expand an exclamation mark?" I do not think this is valid. There are some times (like when passing apostrophes and exclamation marks in the same command-line) that this does not work. The answer below works much better to do what many people need.
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 17:55
7
@Jann: You are 100% right on this, but I think the issue is here is the one with so many questions on superuser: Do we answer the question to the point, or do we help people solve their specific problem. I think both ways can be useful, and this was looking for help on a specific issue.
– Benjamin Bannier
May 24 '11 at 18:17
touché! This was a specific issue. I just tend to want an answer to my questions to be able to be used in many situations. pS: The reason I even mentioned this was I was needing to pass both an apostrophe and an exclamation mark to a perl program and I needed the below solution. :)
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 18:37
I agree with both Benjamin and Jann but gave a downvote. The title of the question is indexed by search engines and that's how I came here and probably most users come here. That's why I believe it's important that the actual question reflect's the problem behind it. In other forums people are advised (almost forced) to ask precisely what they look for. Answering poorly expressed questions supports sloppiness and that's the exact reason for my downvote here. As a compromise / solution my suggestion is to help adapt the heading so it reflects the actual problem.
– ChristophK
Jan 6 at 10:49
add a comment |
23
Since the question was "How do I escape an exclamation mark?" and not "How do i not expand an exclamation mark?" I do not think this is valid. There are some times (like when passing apostrophes and exclamation marks in the same command-line) that this does not work. The answer below works much better to do what many people need.
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 17:55
7
@Jann: You are 100% right on this, but I think the issue is here is the one with so many questions on superuser: Do we answer the question to the point, or do we help people solve their specific problem. I think both ways can be useful, and this was looking for help on a specific issue.
– Benjamin Bannier
May 24 '11 at 18:17
touché! This was a specific issue. I just tend to want an answer to my questions to be able to be used in many situations. pS: The reason I even mentioned this was I was needing to pass both an apostrophe and an exclamation mark to a perl program and I needed the below solution. :)
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 18:37
I agree with both Benjamin and Jann but gave a downvote. The title of the question is indexed by search engines and that's how I came here and probably most users come here. That's why I believe it's important that the actual question reflect's the problem behind it. In other forums people are advised (almost forced) to ask precisely what they look for. Answering poorly expressed questions supports sloppiness and that's the exact reason for my downvote here. As a compromise / solution my suggestion is to help adapt the heading so it reflects the actual problem.
– ChristophK
Jan 6 at 10:49
23
23
Since the question was "How do I escape an exclamation mark?" and not "How do i not expand an exclamation mark?" I do not think this is valid. There are some times (like when passing apostrophes and exclamation marks in the same command-line) that this does not work. The answer below works much better to do what many people need.
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 17:55
Since the question was "How do I escape an exclamation mark?" and not "How do i not expand an exclamation mark?" I do not think this is valid. There are some times (like when passing apostrophes and exclamation marks in the same command-line) that this does not work. The answer below works much better to do what many people need.
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 17:55
7
7
@Jann: You are 100% right on this, but I think the issue is here is the one with so many questions on superuser: Do we answer the question to the point, or do we help people solve their specific problem. I think both ways can be useful, and this was looking for help on a specific issue.
– Benjamin Bannier
May 24 '11 at 18:17
@Jann: You are 100% right on this, but I think the issue is here is the one with so many questions on superuser: Do we answer the question to the point, or do we help people solve their specific problem. I think both ways can be useful, and this was looking for help on a specific issue.
– Benjamin Bannier
May 24 '11 at 18:17
touché! This was a specific issue. I just tend to want an answer to my questions to be able to be used in many situations. pS: The reason I even mentioned this was I was needing to pass both an apostrophe and an exclamation mark to a perl program and I needed the below solution. :)
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 18:37
touché! This was a specific issue. I just tend to want an answer to my questions to be able to be used in many situations. pS: The reason I even mentioned this was I was needing to pass both an apostrophe and an exclamation mark to a perl program and I needed the below solution. :)
– Jann
May 24 '11 at 18:37
I agree with both Benjamin and Jann but gave a downvote. The title of the question is indexed by search engines and that's how I came here and probably most users come here. That's why I believe it's important that the actual question reflect's the problem behind it. In other forums people are advised (almost forced) to ask precisely what they look for. Answering poorly expressed questions supports sloppiness and that's the exact reason for my downvote here. As a compromise / solution my suggestion is to help adapt the heading so it reflects the actual problem.
– ChristophK
Jan 6 at 10:49
I agree with both Benjamin and Jann but gave a downvote. The title of the question is indexed by search engines and that's how I came here and probably most users come here. That's why I believe it's important that the actual question reflect's the problem behind it. In other forums people are advised (almost forced) to ask precisely what they look for. Answering poorly expressed questions supports sloppiness and that's the exact reason for my downvote here. As a compromise / solution my suggestion is to help adapt the heading so it reflects the actual problem.
– ChristophK
Jan 6 at 10:49
add a comment |
Old question I know, but for future searchers:
You can also use this method if you want double quotes as well as the exclamation:
echo "It's broken"'!'
This works even if the ! is not at the end of the line.
For instance:
echo "hello there"'!'" and goodbye"
Bonus: A similar technique can be used to escape any text in Sh or Bash (with the help of sed): see the first option in this answer. Further, if you have bash-completion installed, you likely have the quote() function available already.
edited May 23 '17 at 12:41
Community♦
1
answered Jun 23 '11 at 19:16
jwd
2,22721513
4
Nice tip, JWD. I didn’t realize bash strings could be concatenated simply by omitting whitespace between them.
– Alan H.
Aug 26 '11 at 21:32
Actually if the exclamation mark is at the end of the string you're in the clearecho "Happy birthday!"will work as expected otherwise you can escape it with a backslash, but the backslash will be printed as well XD Bash is not for the faint of heart :)
– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:24
@h4unt3r: Strange, that is not my experience. For me,echo "Happy Birthday!"outputs 2 lines. The first isecho "Happy birthday"(no exclamation), and the second is "Happy birthday" (again, no exclamation). Do you have history expansion turned on when you do this test?
– jwd
Aug 18 '14 at 21:05
@jwd what version of bash are you running? I always have hist expansion on. Did you accidentally use two !! for your test?
– h4unt3r
Aug 19 '14 at 0:15
@h4unt3r:version 4.1.2(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu), definitely only one!being used. I havehistexpandpresent in$SHELLOPTS. However, I did just try 4.3.18(2)-release on another machine, and it behaves as you described. I guess it was a bug that got fixed.
– jwd
Aug 19 '14 at 20:28
add a comment |
Old question I know, but for future searchers:
You can also use this method if you want double quotes as well as the exclamation:
echo "It's broken"'!'
This works even if the ! is not at the end of the line.
For instance:
echo "hello there"'!'" and goodbye"
Bonus: A similar technique can be used to escape any text in Sh or Bash (with the help of sed): see the first option in this answer. Further, if you have bash-completion installed, you likely have the quote() function available already.
edited May 23 '17 at 12:41
Community♦
1
answered Jun 23 '11 at 19:16
jwd
2,22721513
4
Nice tip, JWD. I didn’t realize bash strings could be concatenated simply by omitting whitespace between them.
– Alan H.
Aug 26 '11 at 21:32
Actually if the exclamation mark is at the end of the string you're in the clearecho "Happy birthday!"will work as expected otherwise you can escape it with a backslash, but the backslash will be printed as well XD Bash is not for the faint of heart :)
– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:24
@h4unt3r: Strange, that is not my experience. For me,echo "Happy Birthday!"outputs 2 lines. The first isecho "Happy birthday"(no exclamation), and the second is "Happy birthday" (again, no exclamation). Do you have history expansion turned on when you do this test?
– jwd
Aug 18 '14 at 21:05
@jwd what version of bash are you running? I always have hist expansion on. Did you accidentally use two !! for your test?
– h4unt3r
Aug 19 '14 at 0:15
@h4unt3r:version 4.1.2(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu), definitely only one!being used. I havehistexpandpresent in$SHELLOPTS. However, I did just try 4.3.18(2)-release on another machine, and it behaves as you described. I guess it was a bug that got fixed.
– jwd
Aug 19 '14 at 20:28
add a comment |
Old question I know, but for future searchers:
You can also use this method if you want double quotes as well as the exclamation:
echo "It's broken"'!'
This works even if the ! is not at the end of the line.
For instance:
echo "hello there"'!'" and goodbye"
Bonus: A similar technique can be used to escape any text in Sh or Bash (with the help of sed): see the first option in this answer. Further, if you have bash-completion installed, you likely have the quote() function available already.
edited May 23 '17 at 12:41
Community♦
1
answered Jun 23 '11 at 19:16
jwd
2,22721513
Old question I know, but for future searchers:
You can also use this method if you want double quotes as well as the exclamation:
echo "It's broken"'!'
This works even if the ! is not at the end of the line.
For instance:
echo "hello there"'!'" and goodbye"
Bonus: A similar technique can be used to escape any text in Sh or Bash (with the help of sed): see the first option in this answer. Further, if you have bash-completion installed, you likely have the quote() function available already.
edited May 23 '17 at 12:41
Community♦
1
answered Jun 23 '11 at 19:16
jwd
2,22721513
edited May 23 '17 at 12:41
Community♦
1
edited May 23 '17 at 12:41
Community♦
1
edited May 23 '17 at 12:41
Community♦
1
1
answered Jun 23 '11 at 19:16
jwd
2,22721513
answered Jun 23 '11 at 19:16
jwd
2,22721513
answered Jun 23 '11 at 19:16
jwd
2,22721513
2,22721513
4
Nice tip, JWD. I didn’t realize bash strings could be concatenated simply by omitting whitespace between them.
– Alan H.
Aug 26 '11 at 21:32
Actually if the exclamation mark is at the end of the string you're in the clearecho "Happy birthday!"will work as expected otherwise you can escape it with a backslash, but the backslash will be printed as well XD Bash is not for the faint of heart :)
– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:24
@h4unt3r: Strange, that is not my experience. For me,echo "Happy Birthday!"outputs 2 lines. The first isecho "Happy birthday"(no exclamation), and the second is "Happy birthday" (again, no exclamation). Do you have history expansion turned on when you do this test?
– jwd
Aug 18 '14 at 21:05
@jwd what version of bash are you running? I always have hist expansion on. Did you accidentally use two !! for your test?
– h4unt3r
Aug 19 '14 at 0:15
@h4unt3r:version 4.1.2(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu), definitely only one!being used. I havehistexpandpresent in$SHELLOPTS. However, I did just try 4.3.18(2)-release on another machine, and it behaves as you described. I guess it was a bug that got fixed.
– jwd
Aug 19 '14 at 20:28
add a comment |
4
Nice tip, JWD. I didn’t realize bash strings could be concatenated simply by omitting whitespace between them.
– Alan H.
Aug 26 '11 at 21:32
Actually if the exclamation mark is at the end of the string you're in the clearecho "Happy birthday!"will work as expected otherwise you can escape it with a backslash, but the backslash will be printed as well XD Bash is not for the faint of heart :)
– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:24
@h4unt3r: Strange, that is not my experience. For me,echo "Happy Birthday!"outputs 2 lines. The first isecho "Happy birthday"(no exclamation), and the second is "Happy birthday" (again, no exclamation). Do you have history expansion turned on when you do this test?
– jwd
Aug 18 '14 at 21:05
@jwd what version of bash are you running? I always have hist expansion on. Did you accidentally use two !! for your test?
– h4unt3r
Aug 19 '14 at 0:15
@h4unt3r:version 4.1.2(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu), definitely only one!being used. I havehistexpandpresent in$SHELLOPTS. However, I did just try 4.3.18(2)-release on another machine, and it behaves as you described. I guess it was a bug that got fixed.
– jwd
Aug 19 '14 at 20:28
4
4
Nice tip, JWD. I didn’t realize bash strings could be concatenated simply by omitting whitespace between them.
– Alan H.
Aug 26 '11 at 21:32
Nice tip, JWD. I didn’t realize bash strings could be concatenated simply by omitting whitespace between them.
– Alan H.
Aug 26 '11 at 21:32
Actually if the exclamation mark is at the end of the string you're in the clear
echo "Happy birthday!" will work as expected otherwise you can escape it with a backslash, but the backslash will be printed as well XD Bash is not for the faint of heart :)– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:24
Actually if the exclamation mark is at the end of the string you're in the clear
echo "Happy birthday!" will work as expected otherwise you can escape it with a backslash, but the backslash will be printed as well XD Bash is not for the faint of heart :)– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:24
@h4unt3r: Strange, that is not my experience. For me,
echo "Happy Birthday!" outputs 2 lines. The first is echo "Happy birthday" (no exclamation), and the second is "Happy birthday" (again, no exclamation). Do you have history expansion turned on when you do this test?– jwd
Aug 18 '14 at 21:05
@h4unt3r: Strange, that is not my experience. For me,
echo "Happy Birthday!" outputs 2 lines. The first is echo "Happy birthday" (no exclamation), and the second is "Happy birthday" (again, no exclamation). Do you have history expansion turned on when you do this test?– jwd
Aug 18 '14 at 21:05
@jwd what version of bash are you running? I always have hist expansion on. Did you accidentally use two !! for your test?
– h4unt3r
Aug 19 '14 at 0:15
@jwd what version of bash are you running? I always have hist expansion on. Did you accidentally use two !! for your test?
– h4unt3r
Aug 19 '14 at 0:15
@h4unt3r:
version 4.1.2(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu), definitely only one ! being used. I have histexpand present in $SHELLOPTS. However, I did just try 4.3.18(2)-release on another machine, and it behaves as you described. I guess it was a bug that got fixed.– jwd
Aug 19 '14 at 20:28
@h4unt3r:
version 4.1.2(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu), definitely only one ! being used. I have histexpand present in $SHELLOPTS. However, I did just try 4.3.18(2)-release on another machine, and it behaves as you described. I guess it was a bug that got fixed.– jwd
Aug 19 '14 at 20:28
add a comment |
Turn off history expansion:
set +H
or
set +o histexpand
You can add one of those commands to your ~/.bashrc if you usually don't use history expansion.
Bash 4.3 added a special case:
the history expansion character is also treated as quoted if it immediately precedes the closing double quote in a double-quoted string
answered Apr 22 '10 at 18:58
Dennis Williamson
76.1k14129167
Thanks--this worked, but I had to doset +o histexpand, notset -o histexpand. Could you edit your answer to fix this?
– Matthew
Apr 22 '10 at 19:04
Oops, typo, sorry. Fixed.
– Dennis Williamson
Apr 22 '10 at 22:29
excelent! was looking for this for AGES.... thx vm! as escape wont work... I dont want to use single quotes too... I will add this to my.bashrcthx!!, never used!in scripts and for nothing!! it was always troubling...
– Aquarius Power
Jul 18 '13 at 15:19
This is so awesome!echo "@AquariusPower!"
– joehanna
Jun 30 '16 at 0:28
add a comment |
Turn off history expansion:
set +H
or
set +o histexpand
You can add one of those commands to your ~/.bashrc if you usually don't use history expansion.
Bash 4.3 added a special case:
the history expansion character is also treated as quoted if it immediately precedes the closing double quote in a double-quoted string
answered Apr 22 '10 at 18:58
Dennis Williamson
76.1k14129167
Thanks--this worked, but I had to doset +o histexpand, notset -o histexpand. Could you edit your answer to fix this?
– Matthew
Apr 22 '10 at 19:04
Oops, typo, sorry. Fixed.
– Dennis Williamson
Apr 22 '10 at 22:29
excelent! was looking for this for AGES.... thx vm! as escape wont work... I dont want to use single quotes too... I will add this to my.bashrcthx!!, never used!in scripts and for nothing!! it was always troubling...
– Aquarius Power
Jul 18 '13 at 15:19
This is so awesome!echo "@AquariusPower!"
– joehanna
Jun 30 '16 at 0:28
add a comment |
Turn off history expansion:
set +H
or
set +o histexpand
You can add one of those commands to your ~/.bashrc if you usually don't use history expansion.
Bash 4.3 added a special case:
the history expansion character is also treated as quoted if it immediately precedes the closing double quote in a double-quoted string
answered Apr 22 '10 at 18:58
Dennis Williamson
76.1k14129167
Turn off history expansion:
set +H
or
set +o histexpand
You can add one of those commands to your ~/.bashrc if you usually don't use history expansion.
Bash 4.3 added a special case:
the history expansion character is also treated as quoted if it immediately precedes the closing double quote in a double-quoted string
answered Apr 22 '10 at 18:58
Dennis Williamson
76.1k14129167
edited Dec 6 at 20:22
answered Apr 22 '10 at 18:58
Dennis Williamson
76.1k14129167
answered Apr 22 '10 at 18:58
Dennis Williamson
76.1k14129167
answered Apr 22 '10 at 18:58
Dennis Williamson
76.1k14129167
76.1k14129167
Thanks--this worked, but I had to doset +o histexpand, notset -o histexpand. Could you edit your answer to fix this?
– Matthew
Apr 22 '10 at 19:04
Oops, typo, sorry. Fixed.
– Dennis Williamson
Apr 22 '10 at 22:29
excelent! was looking for this for AGES.... thx vm! as escape wont work... I dont want to use single quotes too... I will add this to my.bashrcthx!!, never used!in scripts and for nothing!! it was always troubling...
– Aquarius Power
Jul 18 '13 at 15:19
This is so awesome!echo "@AquariusPower!"
– joehanna
Jun 30 '16 at 0:28
add a comment |
Thanks--this worked, but I had to doset +o histexpand, notset -o histexpand. Could you edit your answer to fix this?
– Matthew
Apr 22 '10 at 19:04
Oops, typo, sorry. Fixed.
– Dennis Williamson
Apr 22 '10 at 22:29
excelent! was looking for this for AGES.... thx vm! as escape wont work... I dont want to use single quotes too... I will add this to my.bashrcthx!!, never used!in scripts and for nothing!! it was always troubling...
– Aquarius Power
Jul 18 '13 at 15:19
This is so awesome!echo "@AquariusPower!"
– joehanna
Jun 30 '16 at 0:28
Thanks--this worked, but I had to do
set +o histexpand, not set -o histexpand. Could you edit your answer to fix this?– Matthew
Apr 22 '10 at 19:04
Thanks--this worked, but I had to do
set +o histexpand, not set -o histexpand. Could you edit your answer to fix this?– Matthew
Apr 22 '10 at 19:04
Oops, typo, sorry. Fixed.
– Dennis Williamson
Apr 22 '10 at 22:29
Oops, typo, sorry. Fixed.
– Dennis Williamson
Apr 22 '10 at 22:29
excelent! was looking for this for AGES.... thx vm! as escape wont work... I dont want to use single quotes too... I will add this to my
.bashrc thx!!, never used ! in scripts and for nothing!! it was always troubling...– Aquarius Power
Jul 18 '13 at 15:19
excelent! was looking for this for AGES.... thx vm! as escape wont work... I dont want to use single quotes too... I will add this to my
.bashrc thx!!, never used ! in scripts and for nothing!! it was always troubling...– Aquarius Power
Jul 18 '13 at 15:19
This is so awesome!
echo "@AquariusPower!"– joehanna
Jun 30 '16 at 0:28
This is so awesome!
echo "@AquariusPower!"– joehanna
Jun 30 '16 at 0:28
add a comment |
Use single quotes (') instead of double quotes ("). Single quotes turn off all interpretation of the stuff in them, while double quotes only turn off some.
bzr commit -m 'It works!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:32
KeithB
7,70611813
add a comment |
Use single quotes (') instead of double quotes ("). Single quotes turn off all interpretation of the stuff in them, while double quotes only turn off some.
bzr commit -m 'It works!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:32
KeithB
7,70611813
add a comment |
Use single quotes (') instead of double quotes ("). Single quotes turn off all interpretation of the stuff in them, while double quotes only turn off some.
bzr commit -m 'It works!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:32
KeithB
7,70611813
Use single quotes (') instead of double quotes ("). Single quotes turn off all interpretation of the stuff in them, while double quotes only turn off some.
bzr commit -m 'It works!'
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:32
KeithB
7,70611813
edited Apr 23 '10 at 12:14
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:32
KeithB
7,70611813
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:32
KeithB
7,70611813
answered Apr 22 '10 at 19:32
KeithB
7,70611813
7,70611813
add a comment |
add a comment |
I just now found another way, that will at least work with echoing strings (sentences) you want to punctuate with an exclamation point. It does an end-run, more or less, around Bash histexpand and takes only a bit longer to code.
The hex for an exclamation point, as listed on
http://www.ascii-code.com/, is 21, so if you put x21 at the end of your string, echo -e $foo, make $foo its own expanded echo [ie, foo=$(echo -e "$foo")], what you get when you echo $foo again is the string with an ! at the end. And no switching histexpand either.
Works for sure in Bash 4+. Earlier versions, ymmv.
edited Sep 28 '17 at 12:07
Daniel Böhmer
4551314
answered Nov 23 '11 at 4:28
SilversleevesX
893
Hmmm it does not work for me.
– lzap
Jun 10 '14 at 11:52
add a comment |
I just now found another way, that will at least work with echoing strings (sentences) you want to punctuate with an exclamation point. It does an end-run, more or less, around Bash histexpand and takes only a bit longer to code.
The hex for an exclamation point, as listed on
http://www.ascii-code.com/, is 21, so if you put x21 at the end of your string, echo -e $foo, make $foo its own expanded echo [ie, foo=$(echo -e "$foo")], what you get when you echo $foo again is the string with an ! at the end. And no switching histexpand either.
Works for sure in Bash 4+. Earlier versions, ymmv.
edited Sep 28 '17 at 12:07
Daniel Böhmer
4551314
answered Nov 23 '11 at 4:28
SilversleevesX
893
Hmmm it does not work for me.
– lzap
Jun 10 '14 at 11:52
add a comment |
I just now found another way, that will at least work with echoing strings (sentences) you want to punctuate with an exclamation point. It does an end-run, more or less, around Bash histexpand and takes only a bit longer to code.
The hex for an exclamation point, as listed on
http://www.ascii-code.com/, is 21, so if you put x21 at the end of your string, echo -e $foo, make $foo its own expanded echo [ie, foo=$(echo -e "$foo")], what you get when you echo $foo again is the string with an ! at the end. And no switching histexpand either.
Works for sure in Bash 4+. Earlier versions, ymmv.
edited Sep 28 '17 at 12:07
Daniel Böhmer
4551314
answered Nov 23 '11 at 4:28
SilversleevesX
893
I just now found another way, that will at least work with echoing strings (sentences) you want to punctuate with an exclamation point. It does an end-run, more or less, around Bash histexpand and takes only a bit longer to code.
The hex for an exclamation point, as listed on
http://www.ascii-code.com/, is 21, so if you put x21 at the end of your string, echo -e $foo, make $foo its own expanded echo [ie, foo=$(echo -e "$foo")], what you get when you echo $foo again is the string with an ! at the end. And no switching histexpand either.
Works for sure in Bash 4+. Earlier versions, ymmv.
edited Sep 28 '17 at 12:07
Daniel Böhmer
4551314
answered Nov 23 '11 at 4:28
SilversleevesX
893
edited Sep 28 '17 at 12:07
Daniel Böhmer
4551314
edited Sep 28 '17 at 12:07
Daniel Böhmer
4551314
edited Sep 28 '17 at 12:07
Daniel Böhmer
4551314
4551314
answered Nov 23 '11 at 4:28
SilversleevesX
893
answered Nov 23 '11 at 4:28
SilversleevesX
893
answered Nov 23 '11 at 4:28
SilversleevesX
893
893
Hmmm it does not work for me.
– lzap
Jun 10 '14 at 11:52
add a comment |
Hmmm it does not work for me.
– lzap
Jun 10 '14 at 11:52
Hmmm it does not work for me.
– lzap
Jun 10 '14 at 11:52
Hmmm it does not work for me.
– lzap
Jun 10 '14 at 11:52
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Super User!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f133780%2fin-bash-how-do-i-escape-an-exclamation-mark%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
1
Doing
bzr commit -m "It works"!works, too.– kba
May 18 '13 at 13:59
1
As I noted before the command you put does actually work on it's own :)
bzr commit -m "It works!"– h4unt3r
Aug 18 '14 at 3:26
An even quirkier case with nested quotes: stackoverflow.com/questions/22125658/…
– Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
Sep 2 '15 at 18:08
Though the accepted answer is a good workaround for your commit problems, I feel it's not an answer to the actual issue: Bash history expansion. Please consider accepting Dennis' answer?
– Arjan
Nov 29 '15 at 10:19