How to keep strings quoted in bash parameters

Question

I have a Bash script which passes patterns and switches to grep.

#!/bin/bash

foo() {
    grep $@ *.txt
}

foo $@

And, of course, myscript SomeText works but myscript "Text1 Text2" does not. Is there a way to keep the quotes when passing arguments from script to foo() and then from foo() to grep?

Note, that I cannot simply use eval and wrap the whole $@ before grep since it can also contain switches so I need to keep the original quoting as passed from the command line.

Thanks.

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-24 11:46:29Z

2

Your grep command looks incomplete, have you script like this with quoted parameters:

#!/bin/bash
set -x # for debug purpose only, comment out later

foo() {
    grep "$@" *.txt
}

foo "$@"

And call it like this:

./myscript "Text1 Text2"

answered Sep 24, 2012 at 11:46

anubhava

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2 Comments

jackhab Over a year ago

Thanks! I thought I already tested your solution but I probably forgot to quote $@ in one of the calls.

glenn jackman Over a year ago

@jackhab, the difference between quoted and unquoted is illustrated at stackoverflow.com/a/12316565/7552

cdarke · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-24 11:50:20Z

2

Simply quote the $@:

#!/bin/bash 

foo() { 
    grep "$@" 
} 

foo "$@"

This is a difference between $@ and $*.

answered Sep 24, 2012 at 11:50

cdarke

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