Re: Bash / Escaping quotes is driving me crazy . .

[Philip Rhoades]

Gordon,
> Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2016 08:56:54 -0800
> From: Gordon Messmer 
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: Bash / Escaping quotes is driving me crazy . .
> Message-ID: 
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
> On 02/20/2016 07:18 PM, Philip Rhoades wrote:
> > OK, that all makes sense but there is a further issue - I was trying
> > to keep it simple - this whole line is inside a Ruby "system" command 
> > ie:
> >   system( "ssh .. " )
> > I can't use the second option because I need to use double quotes so
> > that I can use Ruby variables inside the double quotes eg:
>
> I think you're still missing some fundamental concepts about nesting
> quotes.  (I was also mistaken in suggesting that the wildcards needed
> escaping when the internal double-quotes were escaped, though, so...  
> We
> all make mistakes.)
>
> In Ruby double-quoted strings, you can get interpolation, and in single
> quoted strings you don't.  But if you nest single quotes inside a
> double-quoted strings, Ruby still treats the entire string as double
> quoted.  It doesn't change the rules when it finds single quotes inside
> the double-quoted string, because they're merely a part of the
> double-quoted string.  So your options are:
>
> system("ssh localhost "find /home/... -maxdepth 1 -type f \\( -name
> \"*.mp3\" -o -name \"*.m4a\" -o -name \"*.flac\" \\)" ")
>
> or:
>
> system("ssh localhost 'find /home/... -maxdepth 1 -type f \( -name
> "*.mp3" -o -name "*.m4a" -o -name "*.flac" \)' ")
>
> Using single quotes means significantly less escaping, and you can 
> still
> use interpolation in any part of that string, in Ruby.

From another response, what I have actually ended up with is:

system("ssh localhost 'find /home/... -maxdepth 1 -type f \( -name
  *.mp3 -o -name *.m4a -o -name *.flac \)' ")

Thanks!

Phil.