Issue
When using wsl (windows subsystem for linux) I often want to change directory to a windows directory. wslpath takes a windows directory like C:\Windows and converts it to the wsl version /mnt/c/Windows. With a bit of quoting a construct like this works well (although I suspect there are edge cases):
cd "`wslpath 'C:\Windows'`"
What I want to do is convert this into a bash function that I can put into my .bashrc file to make it a bit easier to type. I want to be able to type something like:
wcd 'C:\Windows'
The problem is quoting all these quotes so I get what I want. This option fails:
wcd ()
{
cd "`wslpath '$1'`"
}
That one was never going to work but I was more hopeful about:
wcd ()
{
cd \"\`wslpath \'$1\'\`\"
}
That’s about my limit with shell quoting but I’m sure it should be possible to get this to work properly.
Solution
The single quotes prevent variable expansion, so '$1' produces the literal string $1.
The command substitution is a command boundary, so you can say
wcd () { cd "`wslpath "$1"`"; }
without bumping into what admittedly can look like the second quote closing the string started by the first opening quote, instead of nesting, which you otherwise generally cannot do.
… Though the vastly preferred modern command substitution syntax should definitely be used in any new code instead;
wcd () { cd "$(wslpath "$1")"; }
Kudos for taking care to quote your arguments properly!
Answered By – tripleee
Answer Checked By – Mildred Charles (BugsFixing Admin)