Bash expand variable inside osascript command

Question

Can someone tell me how to make the variable expand in the following, please:

MESSAGE="Public IP Address has changed"
osascript -e 'tell application (path to frontmost application as text) to display \ 
dialog "My message is ${MESSAGE} " buttons {"OK"} with icon stop'

Welcome on Stack Overflow! Would be great if you could explain your question a bit more by editing. Thanks! — David
– David, Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 16:58

glenn jackman · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-18 17:07:56Z

1

The single quotes are preventing variable expansion: 3.1.2.2 Single Quotes

MESSAGE="Public IP Address has changed"
osascript -e 'tell application (path to frontmost application as text) to display \ 
dialog "My message is '"$MESSAGE"' " buttons {"OK"} with icon stop'
# ....................^^........^^

I'm using shell string concatenation there:

a single quote to close the first part of the single quoted string,
the variable expanded within double quotes,
a single quote to open the last part of the single quoted string.

answered Jun 18, 2018 at 17:07

glenn jackman

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1 Comment

Gordon Davisson Over a year ago

Also, you can't use line continuation (with an escaped newline) in the middle of a single-quoted string.

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