how to handle character ) in bash shell?
 

i have a script where i need to pass an argument "1234:-)"

if i run this as

./shell.sh 1234:-)

it wont work because invalid character.

i need to handle this with expect utility so if i pass it as

./shell.sh "1234:-\)"

no issue in bash but expect does not recognize this.

how to handle this

What about single quotes?
:-)

Expect works fine, without escaping:

I'm trying single quotes ..

it seems both single and double quotes are same. :(

if i pass

./shell.sh '1234:-\)'

from bash i dont get any error.
when it goes to expect it will be 1234:-). this is what i expect, but still im getting message "incorrect password"

Please, try double or single quotes without the escaped parenthesis (as shown in the examples above):
or

Or maybe if passing through a bash script to the expect script you need quotes within quotes to keep it all together:

ok now im trying to replace that character ) with dot . (or some thing else) when required i will replace it back to ). so that my code works. but now how do i replace string in sh script

:( new to linux

Within single quotes, nothing is substituted, and backslashes are interpreted literally.

Within double quotes, some things still are substituted.

To learn more about BASH scripting, see the "LinuxCommand" tutorial (there's a link in my sig).