Passing arguments to command line program

Question

I'm doing math parser where I need to have input through command line. So I did it but I have problem that bash is giving me error with -bash: syntax error near unexpected token('` when I input expression like 3*(2). On normal input it's working.

You should clarify what 'normal input' is (with an example or two). — Jonathan Leffler
– Jonathan Leffler, Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 18:44
It's math parser so my input was like ./myprog 'sin(25) - 3*(35-1)' etc without these ' ' it wasn't working :) — Jacob Leet
– Jacob Leet, Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 18:46

dbush · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-28 18:40:22Z

4

Certain characters such as *, (, and ) have special meaning to the shell. You'll need to escape them with a backslash when calling your program:

./myprog 3 \* \( 2 \)

answered Jul 28, 2016 at 18:40

dbush

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2 Comments

Jonathan Leffler Over a year ago

@JakubStibůrek: backslashes or single quotes both work — and the reason is what dbush stated; they have special meanings to the shell.

John Bollinger Over a year ago

Double quotes would probably work too for the kinds of inputs involved, but single quotes are safer.

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