On Wed, Dec 07, 2016 at 12:56:00AM +0000, Daniel Einspanjer wrote: > echo The desired output is: > echo "var = \"test test\""
imadev:~$ q=\" imadev:~$ var="a variable" imadev:~$ cat <<EOF > ${var:+var = $q$var$q} > EOF var = "a variable" imadev:~$ echo "$BASH_VERSION" 4.4.0(1)-release Putting literal quotes (to be echoed) inside variables helps work around a fairly large number of tricky situations like this. It's a useful general-purpose hack to keep in the back of your mind for the future.