How Can I Write and Append Using Echo Command to a File

Question

I am trying to write a script which will use echo and write/append to a file. But I have " " in syntax already in strings .. say ..

echo "I am "Finding" difficult to write this to file" > file.txt
echo "I can "write" without double quotes" >> file.txt

Can anyone please help to understand this, really appreciated.

BR, SM

Accepted Answer

If you want to have quotes, then you must escape them using the backslash character.

echo "I am \"Finding\" difficult to write this to file" > file.txt echo
echo "I can \"write\" without double quotes" >> file.txt

The same holds true if you i.e. also want to write the \ itself, as it may cause side effects. So you have to use \\

Another option would be to use The `'' instead of quotes.

echo 'I am "Finding" difficult to write this to file' > file.txt echo
echo 'I can "write" without double quotes' >> file.txt

However in this case variable substition doesn't work, so if you want to use variables you have to put them outside.

echo "This is a test to write $PATH in my file" >> file.txt
echo 'This is a test to write '"$PATH"' in my file' >> file.txt

Answer 2

If you have special characters, you can escape them with a backslash to use them as needed:

echo "I am \"Finding\" difficult to write this to file" > file.txt
echo "I can \"write\" without double quotes" >> file.txt

However, you can also use the shell's "EOF" feature with the tee command, which is really nice for writing all sorts of things:

tee -a file.txt <<EOF

I am "Finding" difficult to write this to file
I can "write" without double quotes
EOF

That will write virtually ANY content you want directly to that file, and escape any special characters until you get to the EOF.

*Edited to add the append switch, to prevent overwriting the file:
-a

2 Answers