passing quoted string argument to java in script in msys

Question

I have been trying to run some java programs from a bash script in msys on a windows machine. Specifically, I am automating some tasks using WEKA on command line. I have some problems where a quoted string is not passed correctly to java. The actual code loops through an array of commands to run. Here is a stripped down version, i.e. a single iteration where $RUN contains the array element string.

#!/bin/bash

export CLASSPATH=CLASSPATH:weka.jar:libsvm.jar

RUN="java weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -W '1 2' -t trainFile.csv -T testFile.csv "

# does not work, returns => Weka exception: For input string: "'1"
$RUN  > reportFile.txt

RUN="java weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -W \"1 2\" -t trainFile.csv -T testFile.csv "

# does not work, returns => Weka exception: For input string: ""1"
$RUN > reportFile.txt

RUN="java weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -t trainFile.csv -T testFile.csv "

# works without the string argument for -W
$RUN  > reportFile.txt

It seems the the problem is the string "1 2" is broken into two arguments. How can they be combined into one argument?

I am using Windows 7, msys with the mintty terminal.

Answer 1

Try this workaround:

RUN="weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -W \"1 2\" -t trainFile.csv -T testFile.csv"
echo $RUN | xargs java > reportFile.txt