Re: [Orgmode] Re: [babel] Sh problem when echo'ing input data with ' inside

[Eric Schulte]

Achim Gratz <address@hidden> writes:

> Sébastien Vauban <address@hidden>
> writes:
>> However, I can't do any work on the input file, the very basic echo command
>> already giving an error:
>
> This is because quoting the arguments to echo does not work when your
> input contains unescaped quote characters.  I've no idea how exactly
> babel tries to get it's arguments to the command, but it looks like it
> simply copies text and executes the resulting script?  If it could open
> a pipe and send the data through, no quoting would be necessary since
> the shell never sees the data.  I'm not sure if that's possible because
> I can't find specific documentation on language "sh".
>
> [Note: orgmode online manual links to
>  http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages/ which is broken.]
>

yes, the Worg documentation is in dire need of maintenance, see below
for discussion of how arguments are passed in the sh blocks

>
>> #+begin_src sh :var data=excel-from-bank :results output
>> echo "$data"
>> #+end_src
>
> So, you're using a un*xoid?  This is your lucky day, since in your case you
> should be able to use a here script:
>
> #+begin_src sh :var data=excel-from-bank :results output
> echo <<EOF | cmd1 | cmd2
> $data
> EOF
> #+end_src
>

here scripts are how Babel sends data through to a shell script, as far
as I know they should have no issues with quotes (or any other
character)

specifically, the following code block

    #+results: something
    #+begin_example
      something
      and something else
      with apostrophes ' and quotes "
      this should all work...
    #+end_example

    #+begin_src sh :var data=something
      echo $data
    #+end_src

Expands to

    #+begin_src sh
      data=$(cat <<BABEL_STRING
      something
        and something else
        with apostrophes ' and quotes "
        this should all work...
      BABEL_STRING
      )
      echo $data
    #+end_src

Cheers -- Eric