More precisely, why does
"`command "$variable"`"
treat the outer quotes as enclosing the inner quotes, instead of expanding the variable outside any quotes?
The exact command I used to test this is similar to an example brought up in another stackoverflow question about the correct method of quoting when using command substitution:
fileName="some path with/spaces"
echo "`dirname "$fileName"`"
which correctly echoes "some path with", instead of complaining because of an invalid number of arguments.
I read Bash's man page, where it states in chapter "EXPANSION", section "Commmand Substitution" that the new-style $() substitution preserves the meaning of any character between the parentheses, however, regarding backquotes, it only mentions that backslashes work in a limited way:
When the old-style backquote form of substitution is used, backslash retains its literal meaning except when followed by
$,`, or\. The first backquote not preceded by a backslash terminates the command substitution.
My first thought was that backticks do the same, aside from the mentioned exception, thus "quoting" the inner double quotes, however, I got told that is not the case. The second observation that pointed me to this direction was that
a=\$b
b=hello
echo `echo $a`
prints "$b". Had the backticks let the dollar sign get interpreted, the first variable substitution should have occurred before the subshell was invoked, with the subshell expanding the string "$b", resulting in "hello." According to the above excerpt from the man page, I can even make sure the dollar sign is actually quoted, by using
echo `echo \$a`
and the results would still be the same.
A third observation gives me some doubts though:
echo `echo \\a`
Result: "\a"
echo \a
Result: a
Here it seems like both backslashes were retained until the subshell came into play, even though the man page states that backslashes within backquotes do not have their literal meaning when followed by another backslash. EDIT: ^ Everything works as expected in this regard, I must have used the wrong shell (tcsh in my other terminal, and with a different character from "a").
Although I have not been able to find out what actually happens, while I was searching for the answer, I came across some people mentioning the term "quoting context" with regards to command substitution, but without any explanation as to what it means or where it is described. I have not found any real reference to "quoting contexts" in either Bash references (gnu.org, tldp, man bash) or via DuckDuckGo.
Additionally to knowing what is going on, I'd preferably like to have some reference or guidance as to how this behavior can be discerned from it, because I think I might have failed to put some pieces together from which this naturally comes. Otherwise I'll just forget the answer.
To those recommending people to use the new-style dollar sign and parentheses substitution: on ca. 50 years old Unix machines with tens or hundreds of different proprietary environments (can't throw out a shell for a newer one), when one has to write scripts compatible between most shells that anyone might be using, it is not an option.
Thanks to anyone who can help me.
