Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes?

assuming bash or similar shell (unknown on windows)

# \\ escapes the slash
# \" escapes the quote
# so \\\" escapes a single slash and a quote
foo.pl -bar=\\\"donteatem\\\"
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perl should get -bar=\"donteatem\"

Comment on Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? Download Code

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Re^2: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by Anonymous Monk on Feb 11, 2005 at 21:27 UTC
Ahh... I'd love to be able to do that... But what if I cannot control the input? I'm reading input destined for another program, and I (most unfortunately) don't have control of what's generating the commandline. So, I'm always going to get \" instead of \\"	[reply]
Re^3: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by VSarkiss (Monsignor) on Feb 11, 2005 at 22:16 UTC
You just answered your own question: if you don't have control over the input, then you can't change what you get. Whether the program gets passed the backslashes on the command line depends on the command processor, not Perl. Your program can only work with what it's given. Do not rebuke them with harsh words ... but rather lead them gently - with URLs - so that they may learn wisdom.	[reply]
Re^3: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by sgifford (Prior) on Feb 12, 2005 at 04:09 UTC
Two thoughts. First, it's the shell that's eating the quotes and backslashes. If you change the shell to a program of your own, you can process these characters however you want. Many programs use the `SHELL` environment variable to select the shell to run, so changing that might help. Second, in order for arguments to have gotten through the shell, they must have been quoted properly. `quotemeta` can quote them properly, even if it's not the same way they were originally quoted.	[reply] [d/l]