On Tue, 10 Feb 2009, Jed S. Baer wrote: > #!/bin/bash > > longcmd="dothing -x -e 'param with spaces' more junk" > $longcmd this that > $longcmd other thing The easiest thing might be an "eval": eval "$longcmd" this that eval "$longcmd" other thing Shell quoting rules never have made that much sense to me.