Instead of using the ‘~’ in the file path, try using the ‘${HOME}’ variable instead. If you must use the ‘~’, you will likely need to escape it in many places. Another thing to note, if you use single quotes ( ‘ ) instead of double quotes ( “ ) , most places in bash scripts won’t try to expand the variables inside them. This is also helpful if you have a script calling SSH and want to pass a command to the remote server which contains a remote variable reference: [bob@localhost bob]# ssh user@host ‘echo ${HOME}; exit’ [bob@localhost bob]# /home/user Vs: [bob@localhost bob]# ssh user@host “echo ${HOME}; exit” [bob@localhost bob]# /home/bob Greg From: CentOS <centos-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of H <agents@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 21:41 To: Centos Mailing List <centos@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Special characters in bash strings [EXTERNAL] This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. I have run into a bash variable string problem that I think I have nailed down to the variable string containing a tilde (~). Not sure if my conclusion is correct and could use some help. To make a long(er) story short, an associative array variable was created: p[work_path]="~/projects/test/" and referenced in the following format in the shell script: "${p[work_path]}" To my consternation this worked fine in some places but not in others. I tried to use the above construct when piping output, as part of a file reference when calling psql from the command line and when referencing an xslt file with xsltproc. In some places it worked, in others it did not but when I substituted the variable reference above with the path in clear text itself it then worked. It looks like there are some nuances on variable substitution that I have yet to learn, perhaps tied to the use of the tilde since using the variable p[work_path]="/home/user/projects/test/" seemed to work in all places. Pointers welcome! _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@xxxxxxxxxx https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.centos.org%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fcentos&data=05%7C01%7Cgregory.young%40n-able.com%7Cf64a3b5849a24d33e3cf08da5fb9d4d2%7C6324f4fb86ee4493ba16c819a916b487%7C1%7C0%7C637927549018775558%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=W1m1Zf5PWvAfbrPsvlZwiaymzGHhUoSbmroxchaKpRk%3D&reserved=0 _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@xxxxxxxxxx https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos