How to escape `--` in bash script for git log command

Asked Sep 18 '20 at 11:41

Active Sep 18 '20 at 11:41

Viewed 13 times

The git log command can specify a custom format, ie,

git log --pretty=format:'%cD %<(20)%cn %f'

Will format the log files into columns.

But I can't get this to work in a two line bash script:

#!/bin/bash
set -x
CMD="git log --pretty=format:'%cD %<(20)%cn %f'"
$CMD

It looks like bash is adding backslashes in front of '--' and single quotes...

+ CMD='git log --pretty=format:'\''%cD %<(20)%cn %f'\'''
+ git log '--pretty=format:'\''%cD' '%<(20)%cn' '%f'\'''
fatal: ambiguous argument '%<(20)%cn': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'

I've tried escaping different parts of the command but can't git it to work.

Any ideas?

asked Sep 18 '20 at 11:41

Danny

bash is adding slashes only to output of `set -xv`. Use an array instead of a string to store a command with parameters. – choroba Sep 18 '20 at 11:48
1

[I'm trying to put a command in a variable, but the complex cases always fail!](https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/050) – Quasímodo Sep 18 '20 at 11:48
1

It's not the dashes, it's the spaces. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Sep 18 '20 at 11:49
It is because of spaces, you can use `git log --pretty=format:'%cD%<(20)%cn%f'` and it will work. – binarysta Sep 18 '20 at 11:50
Thanks all. In the link noted in the close message I found that using `eval` fixed the problem! – Danny Sep 20 '20 at 01:52

How to escape `--` in bash script for git log command

0 Answers0