Quotes

When passing arguments to ${...} there is no need to add quotes. Quotes will be added automatically if needed.

let name = 'foo & bar'
await $`mkdir ${name}`

For quotes zx uses special bash syntax (next commands are valid bash):

mkdir $'foo & bar'
$'ls' $'-la'

If you add quotes "${name}", it will produce a wrong command.

If you need to add something extra, consider putting it inside curly brackets.

await $`mkdir ${'path/to-dir/' + name}`

This will also work properly:

await $`mkdir path/to-dir/${name}`

The zx can also take an array or arguments in the ${...}. Items of the array will be quoted separately and concatenated via a space.

Do not add a .join(' ').

let flags = [
  '--oneline',
  '--decorate',
  '--color',
]
await $`git log ${flags}`

If you already have a string with arrays, it’s your responsibility to correctly parse it and distinguish separate arguments. For example like this:

await $`git log ${'--oneline --decorate --color'.split(' ')}`

As everything passed through ${...} will be escaped, you can’t use ~ or glob syntax.

In order for this to work the zx provides globby package.

For instead of this:

let files = '~/dev/**/*.md' // wrong
await $`ls ${files}`

Use glob function and os package:

let files = await glob(os.homedir() + '/dev/**/*.md')
await $`ls ${files}`