Using curl POST with variables defined in bash script functions

Question

When I echo I get this  which runs when I enter it into the terminal  curl -i   -H  Accept  application json    -H  Content-Type application json    -X POST --data    account    email   akdgdtk test com   screenName   akdgdtk   type   NIKE   passwordSettings    password   Starwars1   passwordConfirm   Starwars1     firstName   Test   lastName   User   middleName   ObiWan   locale   en US   registrationSiteId   520   receiveEmail   false   dateOfBirth   1984-12-25   mobileNumber   9175555555   gender   male   fuelActivationDate   2010-10-22   postalCode   10022   country   US   city   Beverton   state   OR   bio   This is a test user   jpFirstNameKana   unsure   jpLastNameKana   ofthis   height   80   weight   175   distanceUnit   MILES   weightUnit   POUNDS   heightUnit   FT INCHES    https   xxx xxxxx xxxx-www xxxxx com xxxxx xxxx xxxx   But when run in the bash script file  I get this error  curl   6  Could not resolve host  application  nodename nor servname provided  or not known curl   6  Could not resolve host  is  nodename nor servname provided  or not known curl   6  Could not resolve host  a  nodename nor servname provided  or not known curl   6  Could not resolve host  test  nodename nor servname provided  or not known curl   3   globbing  unmatched close brace bracket at pos 158   this is the code in the file  curl -i   -H    Accept  application json      -H    Content-Type application json      -X POST --data       account    email     email    screenName     screenName    type     theType    passwordSettings    password     password    passwordConfirm     password      firstName     firstName    lastName     lastName    middleName     middleName    locale     locale    registrationSiteId     registrationSiteId    receiveEmail     receiveEmail    dateOfBirth     dob    mobileNumber     mobileNumber    gender     gender    fuelActivationDate     fuelActivationDate    postalCode     postalCode    country     country    city     city    state     state    bio     bio    jpFirstNameKana     jpFirstNameKana    jpLastNameKana     jpLastNameKana    height     height    weight     weight    distanceUnit   MILES   weightUnit   POUNDS   heightUnit   FT INCHES        https   xxx xxxxx xxxx-www xxxxx com xxxxx xxxx xxxx    I assume there s an issue with my quotation marks  but I ve played with them a lot and I ve gotten similar errors   All the variables are defined with different functions in the actual script

User · Accepted Answer

You don t need to pass the quotes enclosing the custom headers to curl  Also  your variables in the middle of the data argument should be quoted   First  write a function that generates the post data of your script  This saves you from all sort of headaches concerning shell quoting and makes it easier to read an maintain the script than feeding the post data on curl s invocation line as in your attempt   generate post data       cat  lt  lt EOF      account          email     email        screenName     screenName        type     theType        passwordSettings            password     password          passwordConfirm     password                firstName     firstName      lastName     lastName      middleName     middleName      locale     locale      registrationSiteId     registrationSiteId      receiveEmail     receiveEmail      dateOfBirth     dob      mobileNumber     mobileNumber      gender     gender      fuelActivationDate     fuelActivationDate      postalCode     postalCode      country     country      city     city      state     state      bio     bio      jpFirstNameKana     jpFirstNameKana      jpLastNameKana     jpLastNameKana      height     height      weight     weight      distanceUnit    MILES      weightUnit    POUNDS      heightUnit    FT INCHES    EOF     It is then easy to use that function in the invocation of curl   curl -i   -H  Accept  application json    -H  Content-Type application json    -X POST --data    generate post data    https   xxx xxxxx xxxx-www xxxxx com xxxxx xxxx xxxx    This said  here are a few clarifications about shell quoting rules   The double quotes in the -H arguments  as in -H  foo bar   tell bash to keep what s inside as a single argument  even if it contains spaces    The single quotes in the --data argument  as in --data  foo bar   do the same  except they pass all text verbatim  including double quote characters and the dollar sign    To insert a variable in the middle of a single quoted text  you have to end the single quote  then concatenate with the double quoted variable  and re-open the single quote to continue the text   foo bar   variable  more foo

User · Answer

Solution tested with https   httpbin org  and inline bash script 1  For variables without spaces in it i e  1  Simply add   before and after  variable when replacing desired     string  for i in  1  3   do     curl -X POST -H  Content-Type  application json  -d          number     i      https   httpbin org post     done   2  For input with spaces   Wrap variable with additional   i e   el a    declare -a arr   el a   el b   el c    for i in    arr       do     curl -X POST -H  Content-Type  application json  -d          elem      i       https   httpbin org post     done   Wow works

User · Answer

We can assign a variable for curl using single quote   and wrap some other variables in double-single-double quote  quot   quot  for substitution inside curl-variable  Then easily we can use that curl-variable which here is MERGE  Example    other variables      REF NAME  quot new-branch quot      variable for curl using single quote   gt    not double  quot  MERGE         quot repository quot    quot tmp quot        quot command quot    quot git quot        quot args quot              quot pull quot            quot origin quot            quot   quot  REF NAME quot   quot              quot options quot              quot cwd quot    quot  home git tmp quot             notice this line       quot   quot  REF NAME quot   quot   and then calling curl as usual  curl -s -X POST localhost 1365 M -H  Content-Type  application json  --data  quot  MERGE quot

User · Answer

Putting data into a txt file worked for me bash --version GNU bash  version 4 2 46 2 -release  x86 64-redhat-linux-gnu  curl --version curl 7 29 0  x86 64-redhat-linux-gnu   cat curl data txt       quot type quot   quot index-pattern quot    quot excludeExportDetails quot   true     curl -X POST http   localhost 30560 api saved objects  export -H  kbn-xsrf  true  -H  Content-Type  application json  -d  quot   cat curl data txt  quot  -o out json

User · Answer

A few years late but this might help someone if you are using eval or backtick substitution   postDataJson     guid      guid     auth token      token       Using sed to strip quotes from beginning and end of response    curl --silent -H  Content-Type  application json  https     target host  runs get-work -d   postDataJson    sed -e  s       -e  s

User · Answer

the info from Sir Athos worked perfectly      Here s how I had to use it in my curl script for couchDB   It really helped out a lot   Thanks   bin curl -X PUT  db domain name  5984  config vhosts  1 couchdb  -d       1      --user  admin

User · Answer

Existing answers point out that curl can post data from a file  and employ heredocs to avoid excessive quote escaping and clearly break the JSON out onto new lines  However there is no need to define a function or capture output from cat  because curl can post data from standard input  I find this form very readable   curl -X POST -H  Content-Type application json  --data    -    API URL   lt  lt  EOF      account          email     email        screenName     screenName        type     theType        passwordSettings            password     password          passwordConfirm     password                firstName     firstName      lastName     lastName      middleName     middleName      locale     locale      registrationSiteId     registrationSiteId      receiveEmail     receiveEmail      dateOfBirth     dob      mobileNumber     mobileNumber      gender     gender      fuelActivationDate     fuelActivationDate      postalCode     postalCode      country     country      city     city      state     state      bio     bio      jpFirstNameKana     jpFirstNameKana      jpLastNameKana     jpLastNameKana      height     height      weight     weight      distanceUnit    MILES      weightUnit    POUNDS      heightUnit    FT INCHES    EOF

User · Answer

Here s what actually worked for me  after guidance from answers here   export BASH VARIABLE   1 2 3   curl http   localhost 8080 path -d    cat  lt  lt EOF      name    BASH VARIABLE     something          value1        value2        value3        EOF    -H  Content-Type  application json

User · Answer

Curl can post binary data from a file so I have been using process substitution and taking advantage of file descriptors whenever I need to post something nasty with curl and still want access to the vars in the current shell  Something like   curl  http   localhost 8080    -H  Accept  application json    -H  Content-Type application json    --data   lt  cat  lt  lt EOF      me     USER      something     date   s      EOF     This winds up looking like --data   dev fd  lt some number gt  which just gets processed like a normal file  Anyway if you wanna see it work locally just run nc -l 8080 first and in a different shell fire off the above command  You will see something like   POST   HTTP 1 1 Host  localhost 8080 User-Agent  curl 7 43 0 Accept  application json Content-Type application json Content-Length  43      me    username     something   1465057519      As you can see you can call subshells and whatnot as well as reference vars in the heredoc  Happy hacking hope this helps with the

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