How to use an environment variable inside a quoted string in Bash
I've tried various forms of the following in a bash script: #!/bin/bash svn diff $@ --diff-cmd /usr/bin/diff -x "-y -w -p -W $COLUMNS" But I can't get the syntax to correctly expand the COLUMNS environment variable. I've tried various forms of the following: svn diff $@ --diff-cmd /usr/bin/diff -x '-y -w -p -W $COLUMNS' and svn diff $@ --diff-cmd /usr/bin/diff -x '-y -w -p -W ${COLUMNS}' and eval svn diff $@ --diff-cmd /usr/bin/diff -x "-y -w -p -W $COLUMNS" Suggestions? If unsure, you might use the 'cols' request on the terminal, and forget COLUMNS: COLS=$(tput cols) Just a quick note/summary