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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-10T23:22:22+00:00

I am trying to get a base64 encode to work and output to a

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I am trying to get a base64 encode to work and output to a variable in a bash script. The regular cli syntax is:

echo -ne "\0myuser@myhost.com\0mypass" | base64

But when I try putting this into a variable in a script it outputs, but a very small encoding, so I know it’s not working. My code in the script is:

auth=$(echo -ne "\0$user@$host\0$pass" | base64);

I know it has something to do with the quotes, but I’ve tried a myriad of thing’s with different quotes and singles and backslashes with no go.

Any thoughts?

EDIT: A bit more for the info. This should output with the user/pass/host above:

AG15dXNlckBteWhvc3QuY29tAG15cGFzcw==

But in the script it outputs:

LW5lIAo=
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Ok, I’ll add this as an answer for the records’s sake:

    Problem was in having /bin/sh as a default interpreter shell, which I assume, in this case was dash.

    Test script used:

    #!/bin/bash
user=myuser
pass=mypass
host=myhost.com

auth=$(echo -ne "\0$user@$host\0$pass" | base64);

echo $auth

    Results:

    [51][00:33:22] vlazarenko@alluminium (~/tests) > echo -ne "\0myuser@myhost.com\0mypass" | base64 
AG15dXNlckBteWhvc3QuY29tAG15cGFzcw== 

[52][00:33:42] vlazarenko@alluminium (~/tests) > bash base64.sh
AG15dXNlckBteWhvc3QuY29tAG15cGFzcw== 

[53][00:33:46] vlazarenko@alluminium (~/tests) > dash base64.sh  
LW5lIAo=
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