Command Line Quoting

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Command Line Quoting

In this hands-on lab we'll practice quoting and escaping special characters in Linux. Quoting and escaping strings can be frustrating, but developing an understanding of when to use single quotes, double quotes, and escape characters is necessary when working with Linux.

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Lab Info

Level

Beginner

Last updated

Sep 14, 2025

Duration

30m

Challenge

Set `variable1`
1. Set variable1 to This is 'just' a "test".
```
variable1="This is 'just' a \"test\""
```
1. Write the variable to a new file named value.txt.
```
echo -e $variable1 > value.txt
```
Challenge

Set `variable2`
1. Set variable2 to This is a backslash "\" and this is a single quote '.
```
variable2="This is a backslash \"\\\" and this is a single quote '."
```
1. Append variable2 to the value.txt file.
```
echo -e $variable2 >> value.txt
```
Challenge

Set `variable3`
1. Set variable3 to 3 double quotes """, and 3 single quotes ''', and three backslashes \\\.
```
variable3="3 double quotes \"\"\", and 3 single quotes ''', and 3 backslashes \\\\\\\\\."
```
1. Append variable3 to the value.txt file.
```
echo -e $variable3 >> value.txt
```
Challenge

Set `variable4`
1. Set variable4 to This is what a newline character looks like \n, it will create a new line.
```
variable4="This is what a newline character looks like \\\n, it will create a new line."
```
1. Append variable4 to the value.txt file.
```
echo -e $variable4 >> value.txt
```

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