Missing putting quote " symbol into file from windows command line or batch

Question

I am trying to write different things to a text file from a .bat file. At every attempt to insert one quote " it results in avoiding this command, well, it looks like because it is missing " the symbol in an output file. Here is what I am trying to do:

echo ' " '>> file.txt

It does not even work if we simply try it from CLI

echo ' " '> file.txt

I had the same issue with printf and echo from MinGW. What is wrong here?

Answer 1

You need to escape some special characters to treat them literally. Particularly, " double quote toggles the quote flag , if the quote flag is active, the following special characters are no longer special: ^ & | < > ( ) .

==> echo ' " '>> file.txt
' " '>> file.txt

==> type file.txt
The system cannot find the file specified.

==> echo ' ^" '>> file.txt

==> type file.txt
' " '

Next script shows some escaping rules for ECHO command; note different output (and rules for caret and exclamation mark ) if Delayed Expansion is disabled or enabled:

@cls
@setlocal disabledelayedexpansion
@Call :ouputOnly
@endlocal
@Echo .
@setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
@Call :ouputOnly
@endlocal
@GOTO :eof
:ouputOnly
@Echo ^@  - At Symbol: be less verbose
@Echo ^~  - Tilde: Parameter Expansion as in Call subroutines, FOR loops etc.
@Echo ^&  - Single Ampersand: used as a command separator
@Echo ^&^& - Double Ampersand: conditional command separator (if errorlevel 0)
@Echo ^|^| - Double Pipe: conditional command separator (if errorlevel ^> 0)
@Echo ^:^: - Double Colon: alternative to "rem" for comments outside of code blocks
@Echo ^^  - Caret: general escape character in batch
@Echo ^"  - Double Quote: surrounding a string in double quotes 
@Echo      escapes all of the characters contained within it
@Echo ^() - Parentheses: used to make "code blocks" of grouped commands
@Echo %%  - Percentage Sign: are used to mark three of the four variable types
@Echo ^^!  - Exclamation Mark: to mark delayed expansion environment variables ^^!var^^!
@Echo ^*  - Asterisk: wildcard matches any number or any characters
@Echo ^?  - Question Mark: matches any single character
@Echo ^.  - Single dot: represents the current directory
@Echo ^.. - Double dot: represents the parent directory of the current directory
@Echo ^\  - Backslash: represent the root directory of a drive dir ^\
@Echo ^|  - Single Pipe: redirects the std.output of one command
@Echo      into the std.input of another
@Echo ^NUL (File like device): is like a bottomless pit
@Echo ^CON (File like device): is a file like device that represents the console
@Echo ^>  - Single Greater Than: redirects output to either a file or file like device
@Echo ^>^> - Double Greater than: output will be added to the very end of the file
@Echo ^<  - Less Than: redirect the contents of a file to the std.input of a command
@Echo      Stream redirection: regarding the less and greater than symbols
@echo caret^^       "caret^"
@echo caret^^^^ bang^^! "caret^^ bang^!"
@exit /B
@rem based on (dead link nowadays) http://judago.webs.com/batchoperators.htm