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Shell Character Escaper
World's simplest linux tool
This online utility escapes all special bash (and other shell) characters with a backslash. Anything that you enter in the input textbox on the left will get escaped on the right. Escaping a string lets you safely put it in other strings and variables. You can also control if spaces, commas, and newlines should be escaped. Created by Linux experts from team Browserling.
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What is a Shell Character Escaper?
learn more about this tool
This browser-based tool adds backslash symbols before special shell characters. The implementation of this tool is based on the printf command with the %q argument. Everything that is escaped by this command is also escaped by this tool. A backslash preserves the literal value of the next character (with the exception of \n). By default, the %q format also escapes spaces and commas but often that is not really needed, so we have added an option to skip escaping spaces and commas. In case you have multiple strings to escape, we have also made it easy to skip escaping newlines. If you unselect the "Escape Newlines" option, then every string on every line will get escaped separately. Tuxabulous!
Shell Character Escaper examples
Click to useShell Variables
In this example, we escape shell variables that begin with the dollar sign. If you echo the output string, then variables $1 and $2 won't be expanded.
First argument is $1 and the second argument is $2.
First argument is \$1 and the second argument is \$2.
Required options
Select this option if you need
spaces to be escaped.
Select this option if you need
commas to be escaped.
Escape Spaces
Usually, spaces are neutral characters and don't need to be escaped. However, if you're working with file names, then they need to be escaped. We added an option that lets you do that and this example demonstrates that.
Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls.mp3
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters.mp3
Metallica - Enter Sandman.mp3
Metallica\ -\ For\ Whom\ the\ Bell\ Tolls.mp3\nMetallica\ -\ Nothing\ Else\ Matters.mp3\nMetallica\ -\ Enter\ Sandman.mp3
Required options
Select this option to
escape newlines.
Select this option if you need
spaces to be escaped.
Select this option if you need
commas to be escaped.
Skip Escaping Newlines
This example escapes every string on every line separately. This is done by disabling the escape-newlines option. If you compare this example with the previous one, you'll notice there are no \n symbols in the escaped shell string.
These symbols are special `!
This symbol is special ", too.
This one as well #.
These symbols are special \`\!
This symbol is special \", too.
This one as well \#.
Required options
Select this option to
escape newlines.
Select this option if you need
spaces to be escaped.
Select this option if you need
commas to be escaped.
Pro tips
Master online linux tools
You can pass input to this tool via ?input query argument and it will automatically compute output. Here's how to type it in your browser's address bar. Click to try!
https://onlinelinuxtools.com/escape-shell-characters?input=First%20argument%20is%20%241%20and%20the%20second%20argument%20is%20%242.&escape-space=false&escape-comma=false
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