How to base64 encode image in linux bash / shell

Question

I\'m trying to base64 encode an image in a shell script and put it into variable:

test=\"$(printf DSC_0251.JPG | base64)\"
echo $test
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Answer 1

You need to use cat to get the contents of the file named 'DSC_0251.JPG', rather than the filename itself.

test="$(cat DSC_0251.JPG | base64)"

However, base64 can read from the file itself:

test=$( base64 DSC_0251.JPG )