Environment Variables with $ Character

Question

I'm using a MacOS. I tried to enter this environment variable inside my .bash_profile:

export CLOUD_PASSWORD=Pass4Aa$ditya

But when I do source .bash_profile and try echo $CLOUD_PASSWORD, I get this as output: Pass4Aa

Anything after that $ sign is getting ignored. Even when I tried adding quotes like: export CLOUD_PASSWORD="Pass4Aa$ditya"

and did source later, it is still showing the same as before. How do I create environment variables with Special Characters like $ and @ present in the value?

See How to use a special character as a normal one? – Stéphane Chazelas Aug 05 '19 at 12:25 — Stéphane Chazelas, Aug 05 '19 at 12:25
sample: export foo=$'\x41\x42\x43\x44' – Jichao Dec 25 '21 at 12:19 — Jichao, Dec 25 '21 at 12:19

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 05 '19 at 12:33

21

$ export CLOUD_PASSWORD='Pass4Aa$ditya'
$ printf '%s\n' "$CLOUD_PASSWORD"

Pass4Aa$ditya

$ export CLOUD_PASSWORD="Pass4Aa\$ditya"
$ printf '%s\n' "$CLOUD_PASSWORD"

Pass4Aa$ditya

single quotes or escaping with backslashes :)

edited Aug 05 '19 at 12:33

Stéphane Chazelas

544,893

answered Aug 05 '19 at 12:26

yhoogstrate

324

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 05 '19 at 15:23

3

Use single quotes to assign value to variable in .bash_profile file.

Add following line in .bash_profile -

export CLOUD_PASSWORD='Pass4Aa$ditya'

Verify the changes -

$ source .bash_profile
$ printf '%s\n' "$CLOUD_PASSWORD"
Pass4Aa$ditya

edited Aug 05 '19 at 15:23

Jeff Schaller

67,283
35
116
255

answered Aug 05 '19 at 14:05

kishs1991

131
2

Environment Variables with $ Character

2 Answers2