Escape bash-special character in a bash string

UNIX for Beginners Q & A
1

Hi,

I am new in bash scripting. In my work, I provide support to several users and when I connect to their computers I use the same admin and password, so I am trying to create a script that will only ask me for the IP address and then connect to the computer without having me to type the user and password.

Here's the script:

read -p "Enter ip address: " IP_ADDRESS
pss="123@456"
open vnc://test:$pss@$IP_ADDRESS

If I remove the @ from my password I am able to connect with no issue. I have tried to escape the @ by adding a backslash before the character but still not working (e.g. 123\@456 ). Do you guys have any suggestions?..

Thanks in advance.

2

Just a suspicion: as @ is the separator between user info and target IP, it is inapt to be used inside the password. Are you dependent on it? Just remove it and try again.

3

Thanks for your reply, RudiC. The script works fine if the password does not contain the "@". The thing is that we have over 3,000 computers using a password with "@" for the admin account. Also, I would need to make a request to a different department that manages the computer images.. so it wouldn't be that simple to change the password :(...

4

@ works fine in BASH, it's your application that throws up. What exact application are you launching? Whose implementation of VNC on what system?

Since this looks like a URL, does it support URL encoding, i.e. could you put %40 instead?

2 Likes
5

It is working now :).. I replaced the "@" by %40 and I am able to connect with no problem.. I'm using this script to remote control Mac computers without typing the user and pass every time I need to connect to a computer. Thank you so much. This is going to be very useful for me. I really appreciate your help.

Best regards,

1 Like
6

Be aware that this means % characters could misbehave in your passwords, being taken as the beginning of % sequences.