Question

I’m trying to write a simple bash script that accepts all arguments and interprets them simply as a string.

In other words:
tweet Testing out my command-line tweetings. #commandlinetweets

Takes in all the arguments and just uses them bluntly as a string.

Here is the basic form that I have at the moment:

function tweet()
{
echo "Tweeting using curl."
curl -u tchalvak "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml" -d status="$@"
echo "Tweet done if spammed info back above."
echo "Tweeted using username tchalvak with status $@"
}

Right now the erroneous result of running the function is:

$ tweet TEst again and again and again.
Tweeting using curl.
Enter host password for user 'tchalvak':
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<hash>
  <request>/statuses/update.xml</request>
  <error>Status is a duplicate.</error>
</hash>
curl: (6) Couldn't resolve host 'again'
curl: (6) Couldn't resolve host 'and'
curl: (6) Couldn't resolve host 'again'
curl: (6) Couldn't resolve host 'and'
curl: (6) Couldn't resolve host 'again.'
Tweet done if spammed info back above.
Tweeted using username tchalvak with status TEst again and again and again.

So how do I get from multiple arguments to “all these technically multiple arguments should be counted as just one string variable inside the function”?

Edit: Sorry, I should clarify that I figured I’d just hardcode the username for maximum bulletproofing of the tweeting syntax.

Final solution (as long as you ignore command interpretation issues like # hashes not coming through and similar problems that this dirty method is going to cause, heh):

function tweet()
{
STATUS="$*"
echo "Tweeting using curl."
curl -u tchalvak "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml" -d status="$STATUS"
echo "Tweet done if spammed info back above."
echo "Tweeted using username tchalvak with status $STATUS"
}

Answer 1

$1 will be the user name
and the test will be the text you want to tweet
shift will skip $1
use $* to consume the rest of the arguments

USER=$1
shift
STATUS="$*"
echo "Tweeting using curl."
curl -u $USER "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml" -d status="$STATUS"
echo "Tweet done if spammed info back above."
echo "Tweeted using username $USER with status $STATUS"

sample output as follows

./tweet tchalvak TEst again and again and again.
Tweeting using curl.
Enter host password for user 'tchalvak':
Tweet done if spammed info back above.
Tweeted using username tchalvak with status TEst again and again and again.