Re: Escape special chars in a path

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Escape special chars in a path by afoken (Chancellor) on Aug 18, 2022 at 13:51 UTC
There's String::ShellQuote on CPAN. A name that promises much more than the module actually implements. With a good amount of luck, it may work for this very specific problem ("My Perl utility generates a bash script that consists of mkdir/rsync/cp commands. This bash script is later used by users [...]"). After all, bash should be a bourne-compatible shell. But don't assume that module can do everything its name promises. Quoting myself: The last two times I looked at String::ShellQuote (Re^2: Passing values from Perl script to shell script in 2009 and Re^4: quoting/escaping file names in 2014), it did not look good. The last change is from 2010. So, String::ShellQuote still has the same problems as in 2009 [...]: It works just for some unnamed version of some unnamed bourne shell. The author wanted to add more shells, but he did not since 2005. The test.t look very strange, especially I don't see any reasonable test for passing arguments via a shell. So, it's old, unmaintained, not well-tested, and broken for all shells except for that unspecified bourne shell. See also: Re^2: preserve quotes after $0 interpolation Re^3: system() call mis-directs? Re^4: quoting/escaping file names Re^2: Passing values from Perl script to shell script Update: I had a closer look at the source code and did some tests: Problems with String::ShellQuote Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^2: Escape special chars in a path
by afoken (Chancellor) on Aug 18, 2022 at 13:51 UTC

There's String::ShellQuote on CPAN.

A name that promises much more than the module actually implements. With a good amount of luck, it may work for this very specific problem ("My Perl utility generates a bash script that consists of mkdir/rsync/cp commands. This bash script is later used by users [...]"). After all, bash should be a bourne-compatible shell. But don't assume that module can do everything its name promises.

Quoting myself:

The last two times I looked at String::ShellQuote (Re^2: Passing values from Perl script to shell script in 2009 and Re^4: quoting/escaping file names in 2014), it did not look good. The last change is from 2010. So, String::ShellQuote still has the same problems as in 2009 [...]: It works just for some unnamed version of some unnamed bourne shell. The author wanted to add more shells, but he did not since 2005. The test.t look very strange, especially I don't see any reasonable test for passing arguments via a shell. So, it's old, unmaintained, not well-tested, and broken for all shells except for that unspecified bourne shell.