MajorWiki/05-troubleshooting/wget-url-special-characters.md

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title	domain	category	tags	status	created	updated
wget/curl: URLs with Special Characters Fail in Bash	troubleshooting	general	wget curl bash shell quoting url	published	2026-04-08	2026-04-08

wget/curl: URLs with Special Characters Fail in Bash

Problem

Downloading a URL that contains &, =, #, ?, or other shell-meaningful characters fails with cryptic errors when the URL is not properly quoted:

wget -O output.mp4 https://cdn.example.com/video%20file.mp4?secure=abc123&token=xyz

Bash interprets & as a background operator, splitting the command:

bash: token=xyz: command not found

The download either fails outright or downloads only a partial/error page (e.g., 868 bytes instead of 2 GB).

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Root Cause

Bash treats several URL-common characters as shell operators:

Character	Shell Meaning	URL Meaning
&	Run previous command in background	Query parameter separator
?	Single-character glob wildcard	Start of query string
#	Comment (rest of line ignored)	Fragment identifier
=	Variable assignment (in some contexts)	Key-value separator
%	Job control (%1, %2)	URL encoding prefix
!	History expansion (in interactive shells)	Rarely used in URLs

If the URL is unquoted, Bash processes these characters before wget or curl ever sees them.

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Fix

Always single-quote URLs passed to wget or curl:

wget -O '/path/to/output file.mp4' 'https://cdn.example.com/path/video%20file.mp4?secure=abc123&token=xyz'

Single quotes prevent all shell interpretation — no variable expansion, no globbing, no operator parsing. The URL reaches wget exactly as written.

When to use double quotes instead

If the URL contains a shell variable (e.g., a token stored in $TOKEN), use double quotes:

wget -O output.mp4 "https://cdn.example.com/file.mp4?secure=${TOKEN}&expires=9999"

Double quotes allow variable expansion but still protect &, ?, and # from shell interpretation.

Output filename quoting

The -O filename also needs quoting if it contains spaces or special characters:

wget -O '/plex/plex/DF Direct Q+A #258.mp4' 'https://example.com/video.mp4'

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Quick Reference

Scenario	Quoting
Static URL, no variables	Single quotes: 'https://...'
URL with shell variable	Double quotes: "https://...${VAR}"
Output path with spaces	Single or double quotes around -O path
URL in a script variable	Assign with double quotes: URL="https://...", then wget "$URL"

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Common Symptoms of Unquoted URLs

• bash: <partial-url>: command not found — & split the command
• Download completes instantly with a tiny file (error page, not the real content)
• wget reports success but the file is corrupt or truncated
• No such file or directory errors on URL fragments
• History expansion errors (! in URL triggers bash: !...: event not found)

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See Also

• Bash Scripting Patterns — general shell quoting and safety patterns