How can I use a variable in curl call within bash script
While the other post (and shellcheck) correctly points out that single quotes prevent variable expansion, the robust solution is to use a JSON tool like jq
:
message="Hello there"
curl -X POST -H 'Content-type: application/json' \
--data "$(jq -n --arg var "$message" '.text = $var')"
This works correctly even when $message
contains quotes and backslashes, while just injecting it in a JSON string can cause data corruption, invalid JSON or security issues.
Variables are not expanded within single-quotes. Rewrite using double-quotes:
curl -X POST -H 'Content-type: application/json' --data "{\"text\": \"${message}\"}"
Just remember that double-quotes within double-quotes have to be escaped.
Another variation could be:
curl -X POST -H 'Content-type: application/json' --data '{"text": "'"${message}"'"}'
This one breaks out of the single quotes, encloses ${message}
within double-quotes to prevent word splitting, and then finishes with another single-quoted string. That is:
... '{"text": "'"${message}"'"}'
^^^^^^^^^^^^
single-quoted string
... '{"text": "'"${message}"'"}'
^^^^^^^^^^^^
double-quoted string
... '{"text": "'"${message}"'"}'
^^^^
single-quoted string