Can't use exclamation mark (!) in bash?

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64















I'm trying to use the curl command to access a http url with a exclamation mark (!) in its path. e.g:



curl -v "http://example.org/!287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


the console replies with bash: ... event not found.



What is going on here? and what would be the proper syntax to escape the exclamation mark?










share|improve this question
























  • Solved in bash 4.4+

    – Isaac
    Nov 23 '18 at 1:18















64















I'm trying to use the curl command to access a http url with a exclamation mark (!) in its path. e.g:



curl -v "http://example.org/!287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


the console replies with bash: ... event not found.



What is going on here? and what would be the proper syntax to escape the exclamation mark?










share|improve this question
























  • Solved in bash 4.4+

    – Isaac
    Nov 23 '18 at 1:18













64












64








64


16






I'm trying to use the curl command to access a http url with a exclamation mark (!) in its path. e.g:



curl -v "http://example.org/!287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


the console replies with bash: ... event not found.



What is going on here? and what would be the proper syntax to escape the exclamation mark?










share|improve this question
















I'm trying to use the curl command to access a http url with a exclamation mark (!) in its path. e.g:



curl -v "http://example.org/!287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


the console replies with bash: ... event not found.



What is going on here? and what would be the proper syntax to escape the exclamation mark?







bash quoting special-characters






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Mar 3 '12 at 23:38









Gilles

536k12810821600




536k12810821600










asked Mar 3 '12 at 18:36









netbrainnetbrain

5231510




5231510












  • Solved in bash 4.4+

    – Isaac
    Nov 23 '18 at 1:18

















  • Solved in bash 4.4+

    – Isaac
    Nov 23 '18 at 1:18
















Solved in bash 4.4+

– Isaac
Nov 23 '18 at 1:18





Solved in bash 4.4+

– Isaac
Nov 23 '18 at 1:18










7 Answers
7






active

oldest

votes


















74














The exclamation mark is part of history expansion in bash. To use it you need it enclosed in single quotes (eg: 'http://example.org/!132') or to directly escape it with a backslash () before the character (eg: "http://example.org/!132").



Note that in double quotes, a backslash before the exclam prevents history expansion, BUT the backslash is not removed in such a case. So it's better to use single quotes, so you're not passing a literal backslash to curl as part of the URL.






share|improve this answer




















  • 7





    "http://example.org/!132" actually expands without interpreting the backslash (POSIX compliance reasons, I believe).

    – Chris Down
    Mar 3 '12 at 19:14











  • @ChrisDown, I tried to clarify that was my second option in the text. Thanks for pointing out the potential for confusion.

    – Daniel Pittman
    Mar 3 '12 at 22:30






  • 5





    For the record: It's not portable to try escaping "!". The best-practices recommendation is to always quote (singe-quotes) "!". Related: "^" (caret), is a non-metacharacter that needs quoting for portability. Finally, "!" should not be used in an if statement; use it as an argument to test instead if possible (again because of Solaris /bin/sh).

    – Nicholas Wilson
    Oct 18 '12 at 10:31






  • 4





    Only single quotes worked for me. zsh was still interpreting ! and double quotes.

    – orkoden
    May 21 '14 at 16:29






  • 1





    On Solaris (rubbish old pre-XPG4 shell), '^' is an alias for | and is used to create a pipe. If you're sending scripts to customers and can't be sure what shell they'll run it in, you have to test with them all!

    – Nicholas Wilson
    Jan 16 '18 at 9:47


















51














As well as the answer given by Daniel, you can also simply turn off history expansion altogether if you don't use it with set +H.






share|improve this answer


















  • 16





    Turning off history expansion altogether is the best advice I've heard all day! History expansion is dangerous and byzantine when there are much better alternatives (incremental history search with Ctrl-R) that let you preview & edit your command so you don't blindly fire away with command !-14 that you though was at !-12 that, oops, happened to be rm -rf *. Be safe. Disable history expansion! Eschew the !!

    – aculich
    Mar 6 '12 at 1:09







  • 5





    Biggest answer: history expansion is a huge security risk! It can be used to attack your Unix through a crafted URL.

    – daniel Azuelos
    Jun 15 '15 at 7:30












  • @aculich, or just use the POSIX-specified command fc -14 instead. But it's true that you can do that without history expansion being enabled also. Personally, I use !$ and !vi and sudo !! and even git add !vi:$ often enough to warrant leaving history expansion enabled.

    – Wildcard
    Jan 16 '18 at 5:02


















17














I would personally do single quotes, but for completeness, I will also note since it is a URL, you can encode the ! as %21, e.g. curl -v http://example.org/%21132 .






share|improve this answer






























    11














    This also can do



    curl -v "http://example.org/"'!'"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"

    or
    curl -v "http://example.org/"!"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"



    Which works because bash concatenates adjacent strings. This approach is particularly useful when you have other things that need shell expansion, so you can't use single quotes for the entire string:



    curl -v 'http://example.org/!'"287s87asdjh2/$basepath/someresource"



    ! character is used for history expansions in command line prompt.

    so this can be a problem in prompt but not in shell script files.

    as you can see history expansions work even in double quotes.






    share|improve this answer

























    • There are lots of ways of making Unix commands and English sentences use more characters than they need to, and be more confusing than they need to be.  How is this superior to the first / accepted / highest-voted answer, namely, putting the entire URL into single quotes?

      – G-Man
      Jun 15 '15 at 7:10






    • 2





      @G-Man : It tells another way to construct bash arguments. I wasn't aware of this method. Nothing wrong in learning new stuff.

      – Sahil Singh
      Jul 6 '16 at 12:30












    • @SahilSingh How is this new? It concatenates three strings, two enclosed in double quotes and one enclosed in single quotes. There is no nesting here.

      – Raphael
      Mar 10 '17 at 6:44











    • @G-Man It is not obvious that when you put 2 strings next to each other they get concatenated. printf("hello""world") would work in c as well, but printf("hello"'w') won't work, so you see knowing that bash accommodates such expressions was new to me, but I do agree from utility point of view, this is not superior. I liked the answer, so did Mark Shust.

      – Sahil Singh
      Mar 10 '17 at 7:06






    • 2





      @G-Man It's also useful when there are other string expansions one does want to happen in the same string. This is an easy way of separating two types of quoting behavior.

      – WAF
      May 1 '17 at 15:09


















    5














    I have come across the same problem, and my simple solution was to use a variable:



    E=! 
    curl -v "http://example.org/$E287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


    Here the simplicity is that (1) It is portable across shells and commands (2) Does not require knowing escape syntax and ASCII codes.






    share|improve this answer






























      2














      Ever since Bash 4.3, you can now use double quotes to quote the history expansion character:



      $ bash --version
      GNU bash, version 4.3...
      [...]
      $ echo "Hello World!"
      Hello World!





      share|improve this answer























      • this doesnt work outside of echo, echo seems to handle this differently on its own

        – Blauhirn
        Sep 30 '17 at 12:04











      • @Blauhirn This has nothing to do with echo, and everything to do with quoting and the version of bash that you're running.

        – Flimm
        Oct 1 '17 at 13:38






      • 1





        This answer is wrong and should be deleted. Your bash version has nothing to do with the bang not being expanded, it's due to the fact that in your example the ! is followed by "end of line" and that prevents the shell from trying to expand it. Try echo "!Hello World" and you will see that bash will reply with bash: !Hello: event not found. See manual for more details

        – don_crissti
        Dec 19 '17 at 16:47



















      0














      To those who are using git bash in windows, the accepted answer from @DanielPittman works. However, you should replace the backslash () with a forward slash (/).



      For example, in unix, it'd look something like this:



      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS!ZR412543s'



      For windows, it'd be something like this (focus on the forward slash in the authorization header part)



      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS/!ZR412543s'






      share|improve this answer























      • This doesn't make much sense. You have the argument single quoted, so regardless of the slashes involved the exclam won't result in history expansion.

        – Wildcard
        Jan 16 '18 at 5:03











      • Ohh you're right. I only posted this answer because when I was using Daniel's answer (using backslash), an error pops up.

        – SamuelDev
        Jan 16 '18 at 5:12










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      7 Answers
      7






      active

      oldest

      votes








      7 Answers
      7






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      74














      The exclamation mark is part of history expansion in bash. To use it you need it enclosed in single quotes (eg: 'http://example.org/!132') or to directly escape it with a backslash () before the character (eg: "http://example.org/!132").



      Note that in double quotes, a backslash before the exclam prevents history expansion, BUT the backslash is not removed in such a case. So it's better to use single quotes, so you're not passing a literal backslash to curl as part of the URL.






      share|improve this answer




















      • 7





        "http://example.org/!132" actually expands without interpreting the backslash (POSIX compliance reasons, I believe).

        – Chris Down
        Mar 3 '12 at 19:14











      • @ChrisDown, I tried to clarify that was my second option in the text. Thanks for pointing out the potential for confusion.

        – Daniel Pittman
        Mar 3 '12 at 22:30






      • 5





        For the record: It's not portable to try escaping "!". The best-practices recommendation is to always quote (singe-quotes) "!". Related: "^" (caret), is a non-metacharacter that needs quoting for portability. Finally, "!" should not be used in an if statement; use it as an argument to test instead if possible (again because of Solaris /bin/sh).

        – Nicholas Wilson
        Oct 18 '12 at 10:31






      • 4





        Only single quotes worked for me. zsh was still interpreting ! and double quotes.

        – orkoden
        May 21 '14 at 16:29






      • 1





        On Solaris (rubbish old pre-XPG4 shell), '^' is an alias for | and is used to create a pipe. If you're sending scripts to customers and can't be sure what shell they'll run it in, you have to test with them all!

        – Nicholas Wilson
        Jan 16 '18 at 9:47















      74














      The exclamation mark is part of history expansion in bash. To use it you need it enclosed in single quotes (eg: 'http://example.org/!132') or to directly escape it with a backslash () before the character (eg: "http://example.org/!132").



      Note that in double quotes, a backslash before the exclam prevents history expansion, BUT the backslash is not removed in such a case. So it's better to use single quotes, so you're not passing a literal backslash to curl as part of the URL.






      share|improve this answer




















      • 7





        "http://example.org/!132" actually expands without interpreting the backslash (POSIX compliance reasons, I believe).

        – Chris Down
        Mar 3 '12 at 19:14











      • @ChrisDown, I tried to clarify that was my second option in the text. Thanks for pointing out the potential for confusion.

        – Daniel Pittman
        Mar 3 '12 at 22:30






      • 5





        For the record: It's not portable to try escaping "!". The best-practices recommendation is to always quote (singe-quotes) "!". Related: "^" (caret), is a non-metacharacter that needs quoting for portability. Finally, "!" should not be used in an if statement; use it as an argument to test instead if possible (again because of Solaris /bin/sh).

        – Nicholas Wilson
        Oct 18 '12 at 10:31






      • 4





        Only single quotes worked for me. zsh was still interpreting ! and double quotes.

        – orkoden
        May 21 '14 at 16:29






      • 1





        On Solaris (rubbish old pre-XPG4 shell), '^' is an alias for | and is used to create a pipe. If you're sending scripts to customers and can't be sure what shell they'll run it in, you have to test with them all!

        – Nicholas Wilson
        Jan 16 '18 at 9:47













      74












      74








      74







      The exclamation mark is part of history expansion in bash. To use it you need it enclosed in single quotes (eg: 'http://example.org/!132') or to directly escape it with a backslash () before the character (eg: "http://example.org/!132").



      Note that in double quotes, a backslash before the exclam prevents history expansion, BUT the backslash is not removed in such a case. So it's better to use single quotes, so you're not passing a literal backslash to curl as part of the URL.






      share|improve this answer















      The exclamation mark is part of history expansion in bash. To use it you need it enclosed in single quotes (eg: 'http://example.org/!132') or to directly escape it with a backslash () before the character (eg: "http://example.org/!132").



      Note that in double quotes, a backslash before the exclam prevents history expansion, BUT the backslash is not removed in such a case. So it's better to use single quotes, so you're not passing a literal backslash to curl as part of the URL.







      share|improve this answer














      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer








      edited Jan 16 '18 at 4:58









      Wildcard

      22.9k1063168




      22.9k1063168










      answered Mar 3 '12 at 18:38









      Daniel PittmanDaniel Pittman

      5,45912317




      5,45912317







      • 7





        "http://example.org/!132" actually expands without interpreting the backslash (POSIX compliance reasons, I believe).

        – Chris Down
        Mar 3 '12 at 19:14











      • @ChrisDown, I tried to clarify that was my second option in the text. Thanks for pointing out the potential for confusion.

        – Daniel Pittman
        Mar 3 '12 at 22:30






      • 5





        For the record: It's not portable to try escaping "!". The best-practices recommendation is to always quote (singe-quotes) "!". Related: "^" (caret), is a non-metacharacter that needs quoting for portability. Finally, "!" should not be used in an if statement; use it as an argument to test instead if possible (again because of Solaris /bin/sh).

        – Nicholas Wilson
        Oct 18 '12 at 10:31






      • 4





        Only single quotes worked for me. zsh was still interpreting ! and double quotes.

        – orkoden
        May 21 '14 at 16:29






      • 1





        On Solaris (rubbish old pre-XPG4 shell), '^' is an alias for | and is used to create a pipe. If you're sending scripts to customers and can't be sure what shell they'll run it in, you have to test with them all!

        – Nicholas Wilson
        Jan 16 '18 at 9:47












      • 7





        "http://example.org/!132" actually expands without interpreting the backslash (POSIX compliance reasons, I believe).

        – Chris Down
        Mar 3 '12 at 19:14











      • @ChrisDown, I tried to clarify that was my second option in the text. Thanks for pointing out the potential for confusion.

        – Daniel Pittman
        Mar 3 '12 at 22:30






      • 5





        For the record: It's not portable to try escaping "!". The best-practices recommendation is to always quote (singe-quotes) "!". Related: "^" (caret), is a non-metacharacter that needs quoting for portability. Finally, "!" should not be used in an if statement; use it as an argument to test instead if possible (again because of Solaris /bin/sh).

        – Nicholas Wilson
        Oct 18 '12 at 10:31






      • 4





        Only single quotes worked for me. zsh was still interpreting ! and double quotes.

        – orkoden
        May 21 '14 at 16:29






      • 1





        On Solaris (rubbish old pre-XPG4 shell), '^' is an alias for | and is used to create a pipe. If you're sending scripts to customers and can't be sure what shell they'll run it in, you have to test with them all!

        – Nicholas Wilson
        Jan 16 '18 at 9:47







      7




      7





      "http://example.org/!132" actually expands without interpreting the backslash (POSIX compliance reasons, I believe).

      – Chris Down
      Mar 3 '12 at 19:14





      "http://example.org/!132" actually expands without interpreting the backslash (POSIX compliance reasons, I believe).

      – Chris Down
      Mar 3 '12 at 19:14













      @ChrisDown, I tried to clarify that was my second option in the text. Thanks for pointing out the potential for confusion.

      – Daniel Pittman
      Mar 3 '12 at 22:30





      @ChrisDown, I tried to clarify that was my second option in the text. Thanks for pointing out the potential for confusion.

      – Daniel Pittman
      Mar 3 '12 at 22:30




      5




      5





      For the record: It's not portable to try escaping "!". The best-practices recommendation is to always quote (singe-quotes) "!". Related: "^" (caret), is a non-metacharacter that needs quoting for portability. Finally, "!" should not be used in an if statement; use it as an argument to test instead if possible (again because of Solaris /bin/sh).

      – Nicholas Wilson
      Oct 18 '12 at 10:31





      For the record: It's not portable to try escaping "!". The best-practices recommendation is to always quote (singe-quotes) "!". Related: "^" (caret), is a non-metacharacter that needs quoting for portability. Finally, "!" should not be used in an if statement; use it as an argument to test instead if possible (again because of Solaris /bin/sh).

      – Nicholas Wilson
      Oct 18 '12 at 10:31




      4




      4





      Only single quotes worked for me. zsh was still interpreting ! and double quotes.

      – orkoden
      May 21 '14 at 16:29





      Only single quotes worked for me. zsh was still interpreting ! and double quotes.

      – orkoden
      May 21 '14 at 16:29




      1




      1





      On Solaris (rubbish old pre-XPG4 shell), '^' is an alias for | and is used to create a pipe. If you're sending scripts to customers and can't be sure what shell they'll run it in, you have to test with them all!

      – Nicholas Wilson
      Jan 16 '18 at 9:47





      On Solaris (rubbish old pre-XPG4 shell), '^' is an alias for | and is used to create a pipe. If you're sending scripts to customers and can't be sure what shell they'll run it in, you have to test with them all!

      – Nicholas Wilson
      Jan 16 '18 at 9:47













      51














      As well as the answer given by Daniel, you can also simply turn off history expansion altogether if you don't use it with set +H.






      share|improve this answer


















      • 16





        Turning off history expansion altogether is the best advice I've heard all day! History expansion is dangerous and byzantine when there are much better alternatives (incremental history search with Ctrl-R) that let you preview & edit your command so you don't blindly fire away with command !-14 that you though was at !-12 that, oops, happened to be rm -rf *. Be safe. Disable history expansion! Eschew the !!

        – aculich
        Mar 6 '12 at 1:09







      • 5





        Biggest answer: history expansion is a huge security risk! It can be used to attack your Unix through a crafted URL.

        – daniel Azuelos
        Jun 15 '15 at 7:30












      • @aculich, or just use the POSIX-specified command fc -14 instead. But it's true that you can do that without history expansion being enabled also. Personally, I use !$ and !vi and sudo !! and even git add !vi:$ often enough to warrant leaving history expansion enabled.

        – Wildcard
        Jan 16 '18 at 5:02















      51














      As well as the answer given by Daniel, you can also simply turn off history expansion altogether if you don't use it with set +H.






      share|improve this answer


















      • 16





        Turning off history expansion altogether is the best advice I've heard all day! History expansion is dangerous and byzantine when there are much better alternatives (incremental history search with Ctrl-R) that let you preview & edit your command so you don't blindly fire away with command !-14 that you though was at !-12 that, oops, happened to be rm -rf *. Be safe. Disable history expansion! Eschew the !!

        – aculich
        Mar 6 '12 at 1:09







      • 5





        Biggest answer: history expansion is a huge security risk! It can be used to attack your Unix through a crafted URL.

        – daniel Azuelos
        Jun 15 '15 at 7:30












      • @aculich, or just use the POSIX-specified command fc -14 instead. But it's true that you can do that without history expansion being enabled also. Personally, I use !$ and !vi and sudo !! and even git add !vi:$ often enough to warrant leaving history expansion enabled.

        – Wildcard
        Jan 16 '18 at 5:02













      51












      51








      51







      As well as the answer given by Daniel, you can also simply turn off history expansion altogether if you don't use it with set +H.






      share|improve this answer













      As well as the answer given by Daniel, you can also simply turn off history expansion altogether if you don't use it with set +H.







      share|improve this answer












      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer










      answered Mar 3 '12 at 19:15









      Chris DownChris Down

      80.2k14189202




      80.2k14189202







      • 16





        Turning off history expansion altogether is the best advice I've heard all day! History expansion is dangerous and byzantine when there are much better alternatives (incremental history search with Ctrl-R) that let you preview & edit your command so you don't blindly fire away with command !-14 that you though was at !-12 that, oops, happened to be rm -rf *. Be safe. Disable history expansion! Eschew the !!

        – aculich
        Mar 6 '12 at 1:09







      • 5





        Biggest answer: history expansion is a huge security risk! It can be used to attack your Unix through a crafted URL.

        – daniel Azuelos
        Jun 15 '15 at 7:30












      • @aculich, or just use the POSIX-specified command fc -14 instead. But it's true that you can do that without history expansion being enabled also. Personally, I use !$ and !vi and sudo !! and even git add !vi:$ often enough to warrant leaving history expansion enabled.

        – Wildcard
        Jan 16 '18 at 5:02












      • 16





        Turning off history expansion altogether is the best advice I've heard all day! History expansion is dangerous and byzantine when there are much better alternatives (incremental history search with Ctrl-R) that let you preview & edit your command so you don't blindly fire away with command !-14 that you though was at !-12 that, oops, happened to be rm -rf *. Be safe. Disable history expansion! Eschew the !!

        – aculich
        Mar 6 '12 at 1:09







      • 5





        Biggest answer: history expansion is a huge security risk! It can be used to attack your Unix through a crafted URL.

        – daniel Azuelos
        Jun 15 '15 at 7:30












      • @aculich, or just use the POSIX-specified command fc -14 instead. But it's true that you can do that without history expansion being enabled also. Personally, I use !$ and !vi and sudo !! and even git add !vi:$ often enough to warrant leaving history expansion enabled.

        – Wildcard
        Jan 16 '18 at 5:02







      16




      16





      Turning off history expansion altogether is the best advice I've heard all day! History expansion is dangerous and byzantine when there are much better alternatives (incremental history search with Ctrl-R) that let you preview & edit your command so you don't blindly fire away with command !-14 that you though was at !-12 that, oops, happened to be rm -rf *. Be safe. Disable history expansion! Eschew the !!

      – aculich
      Mar 6 '12 at 1:09






      Turning off history expansion altogether is the best advice I've heard all day! History expansion is dangerous and byzantine when there are much better alternatives (incremental history search with Ctrl-R) that let you preview & edit your command so you don't blindly fire away with command !-14 that you though was at !-12 that, oops, happened to be rm -rf *. Be safe. Disable history expansion! Eschew the !!

      – aculich
      Mar 6 '12 at 1:09





      5




      5





      Biggest answer: history expansion is a huge security risk! It can be used to attack your Unix through a crafted URL.

      – daniel Azuelos
      Jun 15 '15 at 7:30






      Biggest answer: history expansion is a huge security risk! It can be used to attack your Unix through a crafted URL.

      – daniel Azuelos
      Jun 15 '15 at 7:30














      @aculich, or just use the POSIX-specified command fc -14 instead. But it's true that you can do that without history expansion being enabled also. Personally, I use !$ and !vi and sudo !! and even git add !vi:$ often enough to warrant leaving history expansion enabled.

      – Wildcard
      Jan 16 '18 at 5:02





      @aculich, or just use the POSIX-specified command fc -14 instead. But it's true that you can do that without history expansion being enabled also. Personally, I use !$ and !vi and sudo !! and even git add !vi:$ often enough to warrant leaving history expansion enabled.

      – Wildcard
      Jan 16 '18 at 5:02











      17














      I would personally do single quotes, but for completeness, I will also note since it is a URL, you can encode the ! as %21, e.g. curl -v http://example.org/%21132 .






      share|improve this answer



























        17














        I would personally do single quotes, but for completeness, I will also note since it is a URL, you can encode the ! as %21, e.g. curl -v http://example.org/%21132 .






        share|improve this answer

























          17












          17








          17







          I would personally do single quotes, but for completeness, I will also note since it is a URL, you can encode the ! as %21, e.g. curl -v http://example.org/%21132 .






          share|improve this answer













          I would personally do single quotes, but for completeness, I will also note since it is a URL, you can encode the ! as %21, e.g. curl -v http://example.org/%21132 .







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered Mar 3 '12 at 23:17









          Aaron D. MarascoAaron D. Marasco

          3,6381422




          3,6381422





















              11














              This also can do



              curl -v "http://example.org/"'!'"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"

              or
              curl -v "http://example.org/"!"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"



              Which works because bash concatenates adjacent strings. This approach is particularly useful when you have other things that need shell expansion, so you can't use single quotes for the entire string:



              curl -v 'http://example.org/!'"287s87asdjh2/$basepath/someresource"



              ! character is used for history expansions in command line prompt.

              so this can be a problem in prompt but not in shell script files.

              as you can see history expansions work even in double quotes.






              share|improve this answer

























              • There are lots of ways of making Unix commands and English sentences use more characters than they need to, and be more confusing than they need to be.  How is this superior to the first / accepted / highest-voted answer, namely, putting the entire URL into single quotes?

                – G-Man
                Jun 15 '15 at 7:10






              • 2





                @G-Man : It tells another way to construct bash arguments. I wasn't aware of this method. Nothing wrong in learning new stuff.

                – Sahil Singh
                Jul 6 '16 at 12:30












              • @SahilSingh How is this new? It concatenates three strings, two enclosed in double quotes and one enclosed in single quotes. There is no nesting here.

                – Raphael
                Mar 10 '17 at 6:44











              • @G-Man It is not obvious that when you put 2 strings next to each other they get concatenated. printf("hello""world") would work in c as well, but printf("hello"'w') won't work, so you see knowing that bash accommodates such expressions was new to me, but I do agree from utility point of view, this is not superior. I liked the answer, so did Mark Shust.

                – Sahil Singh
                Mar 10 '17 at 7:06






              • 2





                @G-Man It's also useful when there are other string expansions one does want to happen in the same string. This is an easy way of separating two types of quoting behavior.

                – WAF
                May 1 '17 at 15:09















              11














              This also can do



              curl -v "http://example.org/"'!'"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"

              or
              curl -v "http://example.org/"!"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"



              Which works because bash concatenates adjacent strings. This approach is particularly useful when you have other things that need shell expansion, so you can't use single quotes for the entire string:



              curl -v 'http://example.org/!'"287s87asdjh2/$basepath/someresource"



              ! character is used for history expansions in command line prompt.

              so this can be a problem in prompt but not in shell script files.

              as you can see history expansions work even in double quotes.






              share|improve this answer

























              • There are lots of ways of making Unix commands and English sentences use more characters than they need to, and be more confusing than they need to be.  How is this superior to the first / accepted / highest-voted answer, namely, putting the entire URL into single quotes?

                – G-Man
                Jun 15 '15 at 7:10






              • 2





                @G-Man : It tells another way to construct bash arguments. I wasn't aware of this method. Nothing wrong in learning new stuff.

                – Sahil Singh
                Jul 6 '16 at 12:30












              • @SahilSingh How is this new? It concatenates three strings, two enclosed in double quotes and one enclosed in single quotes. There is no nesting here.

                – Raphael
                Mar 10 '17 at 6:44











              • @G-Man It is not obvious that when you put 2 strings next to each other they get concatenated. printf("hello""world") would work in c as well, but printf("hello"'w') won't work, so you see knowing that bash accommodates such expressions was new to me, but I do agree from utility point of view, this is not superior. I liked the answer, so did Mark Shust.

                – Sahil Singh
                Mar 10 '17 at 7:06






              • 2





                @G-Man It's also useful when there are other string expansions one does want to happen in the same string. This is an easy way of separating two types of quoting behavior.

                – WAF
                May 1 '17 at 15:09













              11












              11








              11







              This also can do



              curl -v "http://example.org/"'!'"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"

              or
              curl -v "http://example.org/"!"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"



              Which works because bash concatenates adjacent strings. This approach is particularly useful when you have other things that need shell expansion, so you can't use single quotes for the entire string:



              curl -v 'http://example.org/!'"287s87asdjh2/$basepath/someresource"



              ! character is used for history expansions in command line prompt.

              so this can be a problem in prompt but not in shell script files.

              as you can see history expansions work even in double quotes.






              share|improve this answer















              This also can do



              curl -v "http://example.org/"'!'"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"

              or
              curl -v "http://example.org/"!"287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"



              Which works because bash concatenates adjacent strings. This approach is particularly useful when you have other things that need shell expansion, so you can't use single quotes for the entire string:



              curl -v 'http://example.org/!'"287s87asdjh2/$basepath/someresource"



              ! character is used for history expansions in command line prompt.

              so this can be a problem in prompt but not in shell script files.

              as you can see history expansions work even in double quotes.







              share|improve this answer














              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer








              edited Jan 24 at 3:53









              pavon

              1506




              1506










              answered Jun 15 '15 at 6:43









              mug896mug896

              532410




              532410












              • There are lots of ways of making Unix commands and English sentences use more characters than they need to, and be more confusing than they need to be.  How is this superior to the first / accepted / highest-voted answer, namely, putting the entire URL into single quotes?

                – G-Man
                Jun 15 '15 at 7:10






              • 2





                @G-Man : It tells another way to construct bash arguments. I wasn't aware of this method. Nothing wrong in learning new stuff.

                – Sahil Singh
                Jul 6 '16 at 12:30












              • @SahilSingh How is this new? It concatenates three strings, two enclosed in double quotes and one enclosed in single quotes. There is no nesting here.

                – Raphael
                Mar 10 '17 at 6:44











              • @G-Man It is not obvious that when you put 2 strings next to each other they get concatenated. printf("hello""world") would work in c as well, but printf("hello"'w') won't work, so you see knowing that bash accommodates such expressions was new to me, but I do agree from utility point of view, this is not superior. I liked the answer, so did Mark Shust.

                – Sahil Singh
                Mar 10 '17 at 7:06






              • 2





                @G-Man It's also useful when there are other string expansions one does want to happen in the same string. This is an easy way of separating two types of quoting behavior.

                – WAF
                May 1 '17 at 15:09

















              • There are lots of ways of making Unix commands and English sentences use more characters than they need to, and be more confusing than they need to be.  How is this superior to the first / accepted / highest-voted answer, namely, putting the entire URL into single quotes?

                – G-Man
                Jun 15 '15 at 7:10






              • 2





                @G-Man : It tells another way to construct bash arguments. I wasn't aware of this method. Nothing wrong in learning new stuff.

                – Sahil Singh
                Jul 6 '16 at 12:30












              • @SahilSingh How is this new? It concatenates three strings, two enclosed in double quotes and one enclosed in single quotes. There is no nesting here.

                – Raphael
                Mar 10 '17 at 6:44











              • @G-Man It is not obvious that when you put 2 strings next to each other they get concatenated. printf("hello""world") would work in c as well, but printf("hello"'w') won't work, so you see knowing that bash accommodates such expressions was new to me, but I do agree from utility point of view, this is not superior. I liked the answer, so did Mark Shust.

                – Sahil Singh
                Mar 10 '17 at 7:06






              • 2





                @G-Man It's also useful when there are other string expansions one does want to happen in the same string. This is an easy way of separating two types of quoting behavior.

                – WAF
                May 1 '17 at 15:09
















              There are lots of ways of making Unix commands and English sentences use more characters than they need to, and be more confusing than they need to be.  How is this superior to the first / accepted / highest-voted answer, namely, putting the entire URL into single quotes?

              – G-Man
              Jun 15 '15 at 7:10





              There are lots of ways of making Unix commands and English sentences use more characters than they need to, and be more confusing than they need to be.  How is this superior to the first / accepted / highest-voted answer, namely, putting the entire URL into single quotes?

              – G-Man
              Jun 15 '15 at 7:10




              2




              2





              @G-Man : It tells another way to construct bash arguments. I wasn't aware of this method. Nothing wrong in learning new stuff.

              – Sahil Singh
              Jul 6 '16 at 12:30






              @G-Man : It tells another way to construct bash arguments. I wasn't aware of this method. Nothing wrong in learning new stuff.

              – Sahil Singh
              Jul 6 '16 at 12:30














              @SahilSingh How is this new? It concatenates three strings, two enclosed in double quotes and one enclosed in single quotes. There is no nesting here.

              – Raphael
              Mar 10 '17 at 6:44





              @SahilSingh How is this new? It concatenates three strings, two enclosed in double quotes and one enclosed in single quotes. There is no nesting here.

              – Raphael
              Mar 10 '17 at 6:44













              @G-Man It is not obvious that when you put 2 strings next to each other they get concatenated. printf("hello""world") would work in c as well, but printf("hello"'w') won't work, so you see knowing that bash accommodates such expressions was new to me, but I do agree from utility point of view, this is not superior. I liked the answer, so did Mark Shust.

              – Sahil Singh
              Mar 10 '17 at 7:06





              @G-Man It is not obvious that when you put 2 strings next to each other they get concatenated. printf("hello""world") would work in c as well, but printf("hello"'w') won't work, so you see knowing that bash accommodates such expressions was new to me, but I do agree from utility point of view, this is not superior. I liked the answer, so did Mark Shust.

              – Sahil Singh
              Mar 10 '17 at 7:06




              2




              2





              @G-Man It's also useful when there are other string expansions one does want to happen in the same string. This is an easy way of separating two types of quoting behavior.

              – WAF
              May 1 '17 at 15:09





              @G-Man It's also useful when there are other string expansions one does want to happen in the same string. This is an easy way of separating two types of quoting behavior.

              – WAF
              May 1 '17 at 15:09











              5














              I have come across the same problem, and my simple solution was to use a variable:



              E=! 
              curl -v "http://example.org/$E287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


              Here the simplicity is that (1) It is portable across shells and commands (2) Does not require knowing escape syntax and ASCII codes.






              share|improve this answer



























                5














                I have come across the same problem, and my simple solution was to use a variable:



                E=! 
                curl -v "http://example.org/$E287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


                Here the simplicity is that (1) It is portable across shells and commands (2) Does not require knowing escape syntax and ASCII codes.






                share|improve this answer

























                  5












                  5








                  5







                  I have come across the same problem, and my simple solution was to use a variable:



                  E=! 
                  curl -v "http://example.org/$E287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


                  Here the simplicity is that (1) It is portable across shells and commands (2) Does not require knowing escape syntax and ASCII codes.






                  share|improve this answer













                  I have come across the same problem, and my simple solution was to use a variable:



                  E=! 
                  curl -v "http://example.org/$E287s87asdjh2/somepath/someresource"


                  Here the simplicity is that (1) It is portable across shells and commands (2) Does not require knowing escape syntax and ASCII codes.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered May 25 '15 at 7:06









                  PremPrem

                  1,50121229




                  1,50121229





















                      2














                      Ever since Bash 4.3, you can now use double quotes to quote the history expansion character:



                      $ bash --version
                      GNU bash, version 4.3...
                      [...]
                      $ echo "Hello World!"
                      Hello World!





                      share|improve this answer























                      • this doesnt work outside of echo, echo seems to handle this differently on its own

                        – Blauhirn
                        Sep 30 '17 at 12:04











                      • @Blauhirn This has nothing to do with echo, and everything to do with quoting and the version of bash that you're running.

                        – Flimm
                        Oct 1 '17 at 13:38






                      • 1





                        This answer is wrong and should be deleted. Your bash version has nothing to do with the bang not being expanded, it's due to the fact that in your example the ! is followed by "end of line" and that prevents the shell from trying to expand it. Try echo "!Hello World" and you will see that bash will reply with bash: !Hello: event not found. See manual for more details

                        – don_crissti
                        Dec 19 '17 at 16:47
















                      2














                      Ever since Bash 4.3, you can now use double quotes to quote the history expansion character:



                      $ bash --version
                      GNU bash, version 4.3...
                      [...]
                      $ echo "Hello World!"
                      Hello World!





                      share|improve this answer























                      • this doesnt work outside of echo, echo seems to handle this differently on its own

                        – Blauhirn
                        Sep 30 '17 at 12:04











                      • @Blauhirn This has nothing to do with echo, and everything to do with quoting and the version of bash that you're running.

                        – Flimm
                        Oct 1 '17 at 13:38






                      • 1





                        This answer is wrong and should be deleted. Your bash version has nothing to do with the bang not being expanded, it's due to the fact that in your example the ! is followed by "end of line" and that prevents the shell from trying to expand it. Try echo "!Hello World" and you will see that bash will reply with bash: !Hello: event not found. See manual for more details

                        – don_crissti
                        Dec 19 '17 at 16:47














                      2












                      2








                      2







                      Ever since Bash 4.3, you can now use double quotes to quote the history expansion character:



                      $ bash --version
                      GNU bash, version 4.3...
                      [...]
                      $ echo "Hello World!"
                      Hello World!





                      share|improve this answer













                      Ever since Bash 4.3, you can now use double quotes to quote the history expansion character:



                      $ bash --version
                      GNU bash, version 4.3...
                      [...]
                      $ echo "Hello World!"
                      Hello World!






                      share|improve this answer












                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer










                      answered Sep 16 '16 at 12:17









                      FlimmFlimm

                      1,40541928




                      1,40541928












                      • this doesnt work outside of echo, echo seems to handle this differently on its own

                        – Blauhirn
                        Sep 30 '17 at 12:04











                      • @Blauhirn This has nothing to do with echo, and everything to do with quoting and the version of bash that you're running.

                        – Flimm
                        Oct 1 '17 at 13:38






                      • 1





                        This answer is wrong and should be deleted. Your bash version has nothing to do with the bang not being expanded, it's due to the fact that in your example the ! is followed by "end of line" and that prevents the shell from trying to expand it. Try echo "!Hello World" and you will see that bash will reply with bash: !Hello: event not found. See manual for more details

                        – don_crissti
                        Dec 19 '17 at 16:47


















                      • this doesnt work outside of echo, echo seems to handle this differently on its own

                        – Blauhirn
                        Sep 30 '17 at 12:04











                      • @Blauhirn This has nothing to do with echo, and everything to do with quoting and the version of bash that you're running.

                        – Flimm
                        Oct 1 '17 at 13:38






                      • 1





                        This answer is wrong and should be deleted. Your bash version has nothing to do with the bang not being expanded, it's due to the fact that in your example the ! is followed by "end of line" and that prevents the shell from trying to expand it. Try echo "!Hello World" and you will see that bash will reply with bash: !Hello: event not found. See manual for more details

                        – don_crissti
                        Dec 19 '17 at 16:47

















                      this doesnt work outside of echo, echo seems to handle this differently on its own

                      – Blauhirn
                      Sep 30 '17 at 12:04





                      this doesnt work outside of echo, echo seems to handle this differently on its own

                      – Blauhirn
                      Sep 30 '17 at 12:04













                      @Blauhirn This has nothing to do with echo, and everything to do with quoting and the version of bash that you're running.

                      – Flimm
                      Oct 1 '17 at 13:38





                      @Blauhirn This has nothing to do with echo, and everything to do with quoting and the version of bash that you're running.

                      – Flimm
                      Oct 1 '17 at 13:38




                      1




                      1





                      This answer is wrong and should be deleted. Your bash version has nothing to do with the bang not being expanded, it's due to the fact that in your example the ! is followed by "end of line" and that prevents the shell from trying to expand it. Try echo "!Hello World" and you will see that bash will reply with bash: !Hello: event not found. See manual for more details

                      – don_crissti
                      Dec 19 '17 at 16:47






                      This answer is wrong and should be deleted. Your bash version has nothing to do with the bang not being expanded, it's due to the fact that in your example the ! is followed by "end of line" and that prevents the shell from trying to expand it. Try echo "!Hello World" and you will see that bash will reply with bash: !Hello: event not found. See manual for more details

                      – don_crissti
                      Dec 19 '17 at 16:47












                      0














                      To those who are using git bash in windows, the accepted answer from @DanielPittman works. However, you should replace the backslash () with a forward slash (/).



                      For example, in unix, it'd look something like this:



                      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS!ZR412543s'



                      For windows, it'd be something like this (focus on the forward slash in the authorization header part)



                      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS/!ZR412543s'






                      share|improve this answer























                      • This doesn't make much sense. You have the argument single quoted, so regardless of the slashes involved the exclam won't result in history expansion.

                        – Wildcard
                        Jan 16 '18 at 5:03











                      • Ohh you're right. I only posted this answer because when I was using Daniel's answer (using backslash), an error pops up.

                        – SamuelDev
                        Jan 16 '18 at 5:12















                      0














                      To those who are using git bash in windows, the accepted answer from @DanielPittman works. However, you should replace the backslash () with a forward slash (/).



                      For example, in unix, it'd look something like this:



                      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS!ZR412543s'



                      For windows, it'd be something like this (focus on the forward slash in the authorization header part)



                      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS/!ZR412543s'






                      share|improve this answer























                      • This doesn't make much sense. You have the argument single quoted, so regardless of the slashes involved the exclam won't result in history expansion.

                        – Wildcard
                        Jan 16 '18 at 5:03











                      • Ohh you're right. I only posted this answer because when I was using Daniel's answer (using backslash), an error pops up.

                        – SamuelDev
                        Jan 16 '18 at 5:12













                      0












                      0








                      0







                      To those who are using git bash in windows, the accepted answer from @DanielPittman works. However, you should replace the backslash () with a forward slash (/).



                      For example, in unix, it'd look something like this:



                      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS!ZR412543s'



                      For windows, it'd be something like this (focus on the forward slash in the authorization header part)



                      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS/!ZR412543s'






                      share|improve this answer













                      To those who are using git bash in windows, the accepted answer from @DanielPittman works. However, you should replace the backslash () with a forward slash (/).



                      For example, in unix, it'd look something like this:



                      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS!ZR412543s'



                      For windows, it'd be something like this (focus on the forward slash in the authorization header part)



                      curl https://abc.com/services -H 'Authorization: Bearer 111A80BBZZCnS/!ZR412543s'







                      share|improve this answer












                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer










                      answered Jan 16 '18 at 4:01









                      SamuelDevSamuelDev

                      1011




                      1011












                      • This doesn't make much sense. You have the argument single quoted, so regardless of the slashes involved the exclam won't result in history expansion.

                        – Wildcard
                        Jan 16 '18 at 5:03











                      • Ohh you're right. I only posted this answer because when I was using Daniel's answer (using backslash), an error pops up.

                        – SamuelDev
                        Jan 16 '18 at 5:12

















                      • This doesn't make much sense. You have the argument single quoted, so regardless of the slashes involved the exclam won't result in history expansion.

                        – Wildcard
                        Jan 16 '18 at 5:03











                      • Ohh you're right. I only posted this answer because when I was using Daniel's answer (using backslash), an error pops up.

                        – SamuelDev
                        Jan 16 '18 at 5:12
















                      This doesn't make much sense. You have the argument single quoted, so regardless of the slashes involved the exclam won't result in history expansion.

                      – Wildcard
                      Jan 16 '18 at 5:03





                      This doesn't make much sense. You have the argument single quoted, so regardless of the slashes involved the exclam won't result in history expansion.

                      – Wildcard
                      Jan 16 '18 at 5:03













                      Ohh you're right. I only posted this answer because when I was using Daniel's answer (using backslash), an error pops up.

                      – SamuelDev
                      Jan 16 '18 at 5:12





                      Ohh you're right. I only posted this answer because when I was using Daniel's answer (using backslash), an error pops up.

                      – SamuelDev
                      Jan 16 '18 at 5:12

















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