Re: [Bug-wget] Shouldn't wget strip leading spaces from a URL?

[Dale R. Worley]

L A Walsh <address@hidden> writes:
> W/cut+paste into target line, where URL is double-quoted.  More often
> than not, I find it safer to double-quote a URL than not, because, for
> example, shells react badly to embedded spaces, ampersands and
> question marks.

But of course, no URL contains an embedded space.

If you double-quote, most shells have four special characters that are
processed within double-quotes:  " \ $ `  Of the four, only $ can appear
in a URL.

If you single-quote, most shells have only one special character, which
ends the string: '  Unfortunately, it's allowed in URLs.

So there's no quoting character which you can just put before and after
a URL and be sure that your shell won't damage the URL.

Dale