Calling one Bash script from another Script passing it arguments with quotes and spaces

I made two test bash scripts on Linux to make the problem clear.

TestScript1 looks like:

    echo "TestScript1 Arguments:"
    echo "$1"
    echo "$2"
    echo "$#"
    ./testscript2 $1 $2

TestScript2 looks like:

    echo "TestScript2 Arguments received from TestScript1:"
    echo "$1"
    echo "$2"
    echo "$#"

When i execute testscript1 in the following way:

    ./testscript1 "Firstname Lastname" testmail@domain.com

The desired Output should be:

    TestScript1 Arguments:  
    Firstname Lastname  
    testmail@domain.com  
    2
    TestScript2 Arguments received from TestScript1:  
    Firstname Lastname  
    testmail@domain.com  
    2

But the actual output is:

    TestScript1 Arguments:  
    Firstname Lastname  
    testmail@domain.com  
    2
    TestScript2 Arguments received from TestScript1:  
    Firstname
    Lastname      
    3

How do i solve this problem? I want to get the desired output instead of the actual output.

Quote your args in Testscript 1:

echo "TestScript1 Arguments:"
echo "$1"
echo "$2"
echo "$#"
./testscript2 "$1" "$2"

Olivier Dulac

You need to use : "$@" (WITH the quotes) or "${@}" (same, but also telling the shell where the variable name starts and ends).

(and do NOT use : $@, or "$*", or $*).

ex:

#testscript1:
echo "TestScript1 Arguments:"
for an_arg in "$@" ; do
   echo "${an_arg}"
done
echo "nb of args: $#"
./testscript2 "$@"   #invokes testscript2 with the same arguments we received

I'm not sure I understood your other requirement ( you want to invoke './testscript2' in single quotes?) so here are 2 wild guesses (changing the last line above) :

'./testscript2' "$@"  #only makes sense if "/path/to/testscript2" containes spaces?

./testscript2 '"some thing" "another"' "$var" "$var2"  #3 args to testscript2

Please give me the exact thing you are trying to do

edit: after his comment saying he attempts tesscript1 "$1" "$2" "$3" "$4" "$5" "$6" to run : salt 'remote host' cmd.run './testscript2 $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6'

You have many levels of intermediate: testscript1 on host 1, needs to run "salt", and give it a string launching "testscrit2" with arguments in quotes...

You could maybe "simplify" by having:

#testscript1

#we receive args, we generate a custom script simulating 'testscript2 "$@"'
theargs="'$1'"
shift
for i in "$@" ; do
   theargs="${theargs} '$i'"
done

salt 'remote host' cmd.run "./testscript2 ${theargs}"

if THAt doesn't work, then instead of running "testscript2 ${theargs}", replace THE LAST LINE above by

echo "./testscript2 ${theargs}" >/tmp/runtestscript2.$$  #generate custom script locally ($$ is current pid in bash/sh/...)
scp /tmp/runtestscript2.$$ user@remotehost:/tmp/runtestscript2.$$ #copy it to remotehost
salt 'remotehost' cmd.run "./runtestscript2.$$" #the args are inside the custom script!
ssh user@remotehost "rm /tmp/runtestscript2.$$" #delete the remote one
rm /tmp/runtestscript2.$$ #and the local one

Linsong Guo

I found following program works for me