### Function

# GLib shell_unquote

since: 2.0

#### Declaration

    gchar*
    g_shell_unquote (
      const gchar* quoted_string,
      GError** error
    )

#### Description

Unquotes a string as the shell (/bin/sh) would.

This function only handles quotes; if a string contains file globs, arithmetic operators, variables, backticks, redirections, or other special-to-the-shell features, the result will be different from the result a real shell would produce (the variables, backticks, etc. will be passed through literally instead of being expanded).

This function is guaranteed to succeed if applied to the result of g_shell_quote(). If it fails, it returns `NULL` and sets the error.

The `quoted_string` need not actually contain quoted or escaped text; `g_shell_unquote()` simply goes through the string and unquotes/unescapes anything that the shell would. Both single and double quotes are handled, as are escapes including escaped newlines.

The return value must be freed with g_free().

Possible errors are in the `G_SHELL_ERROR` domain.

Shell quoting rules are a bit strange. Single quotes preserve the literal string exactly. escape sequences are not allowed; not even `\'` - if you want a `'` in the quoted text, you have to do something like `'foo'\''bar'`. Double quotes allow `$`, ```,`“`,``, and newline to be escaped with backslash. Otherwise double quotes preserve things literally.

Available since: 2.0

#### Parameters

`quoted_string`

  Type: `const gchar*`

  Shell-quoted string.

  The data is owned by the caller of the function.
  The value is a file system path, using the OS encoding.

`error`

  Type: `GError **`

  The return location for a recoverable error.

  The argument can be `NULL`.
  If the return location is not `NULL`, then you must initialize it to a `NULL` `GError*`.
  The argument will be left initialized to `NULL` by the function if there are no errors.
  In case of error, the argument will be set to a newly allocated `GError`; the caller will take ownership of the data, and be responsible for freeing it.

#### Return value

Type: `gchar*`

An unquoted string.

The caller of the function takes ownership of the data, and is responsible for freeing it.
The value is a file system path, using the OS encoding.