How to post a multi line json string as body in curl inside bash script

Question

I have the following bash script

#!/bin/bash

body=$(cat  << EOF
{
    "CreatedBy":  "$(hostname -f)",
    "Id":  "$(uuidgen)",
    "Type":  "TestAlertType",
    "AlertCategory":  "NonUrgent"
    }
EOF
)


curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d $body https://dev.cloudapp.net/v1/

But I get invalid json error on post. What am i missing?

Solution

This worked

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d "$body" https://dev.cloudapp.net/v1/

Comments

[jordanm]

You need to quote your expansion: "$body".

[TPPZ]

If the content of $body has/needs new lines / carriage returns (e.g. \n), then you need to add IFS=$"\n" before creating $body with cat and EOF otherwise when using $body later on the new lines disappear, no matter if you use double quotes like "$body".