@6 @star add a backslash (\) before the variable, that way it won't get interpreted c:

I primarily use it interactively though. for scripts I actually prefer not to use bash/shell, because shell substitution is extremely vulnerable to issues, exploits, etc. I only really use it if it makes much more sense than something like python, e.g if there's a bunch of shell commands I just need to chain, but if it's more than a few lines and needs string operations I often just move over to python

@anthropy@mastodon.derg.nz @star@fed.amazonawaws.com I'm not aware of any problems w shell substitution lol
the rule of thumb is Quote Absolutely Everything, tho, bc of that
special characters are only special if you forget to do that

@6 @star quoting definitely helps, but there are a lot of weird ways it can interact (some of which have now been fixed): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellshock_(software_bug)

I'm not going to tell anyone what to write their scripts in, I also have quite a few bash scripts myself, but it's quite a bit more finnicky and vulnerable to accidents than something like python due to the nature of its execution and substitution-based variable usage (like SQL w/o parameters), and python is there usually wherever bash is available.