How to pass "escape hell" to docker run - bash

Question

I'm trying to pass several commands to an alpine container from powershell\cmd. The problem is: commands have quotes\single quotes\escaped quotes.
Sample command, the actual command is one line, I'm splitting it so it is easier to look at:
docker run neilpang/acme.sh bin/sh -c --%
"acme.sh --issue --dns dns_azure --dnssleep 10 --force -d "domain";
openssl pkcs12 -inkey /acme.sh/domain/domain.key -in /acme.sh/domain/domain.cer -export -out pfx -password pass:password;
curl -X POST -d "{\"certName\":\"certName1\",\"certData\":\"$(tail -n +2 /acme.sh/domain/domain.cer > b64; head -n -1 b64)\"}" url -H Content-Type:application/json;
curl -X POST -d "{\"certName\":\"certName2\",\"certData\":\"$(openssl base64 -in pfx -out b64; cat b64)\"}" url -H Content-Type:application/json"
What I've tried:
Use single quotes around the whole expression (after --%) returns something like quoted string not closed
Using single quotes around json works fine, but $() doesnt get interpreted, so I dont get proper output
escaping " before\after json
without " before\after json, results in some garbage
I never got it to work without --%, but it appears ps does some string manipulations even when using --%
did some experiments with cmd, no luck either.
I'm open to any way of making this work :)
for those requesting errors, here's a sample:
-n: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file (expecting ")") # quotes around expression
-p: line 1: syntax error: unterminated quoted string # single quotes around expression
no error, but certData empty # no quotes around json
no quotes in json >> not valid json >> doesnt get parsed # escaped quotes around json
executing the strings i'm trying to pass inside the containers results in the working "solution", whereas trying to pass them through docker run results in different defects described above. I'm not sure where these arise, from powershell (although, i firmly believe --% does the work here, and powershell passes everything properly), docker or bash itself. the closest i got to working is the ' version, but it doesnt evaluate expression inside $(), so that the problem

Answer 1

You'll find the quoting issues significantly easier if you turn your very long, very involved command line into a shell script, package it into a custom image, and then run that.
Shell script, let's call it run_acme.sh:
#!/bin/sh
acme.sh --issue --dns dns_azure --dnssleep 10 --force -d "domain"
openssl pkcs12 \
-inkey /acme.sh/domain/domain.key \
-in /acme.sh/domain/domain.cer \
-export \
-out pfx \
-password pass:password
CER_B64=$(tail -n +2 /acme.sh/domain/domain.cer | head -n -1)
curl -X POST \
--data-binary "{\"certName\":\"certName1\",\"certData\":\"$CER_B64\"}" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'
url
PFX_B64=$(openssl base64 -in pfx)
curl -X POST \
--data-binary "{\"certName\":\"certName1\",\"certData\":\"$PFX_B64\"}" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'
url
Dockerfile:
FROM neilpang/acme.sh
COPY run_acme.sh /bin
CMD ["/bin/run_acme.sh"]
Then you can docker build this like any other custom image, and docker run it, and the very long command line will be baked into the shell script in your image.

Answer 2

I'd suggest using splatting to make this significantly cleaner to maintain. Note: I'm uncertain whether your shell script needs to escape the quotes around the -d parameter.
$curl1 = '"{\"certName\":\"certName1\",' +
'\"certData\":\"$(tail -n +2 /acme.sh/domain/domain.cer > b64; head -n -1 b64)\"}"'
$curl2 = '"{\"certName\":\"certName2\",' +
'\"certData\":\"$(openssl base64 -in pfx -out b64; cat b64)\"}"'
$dockerArgs = #(
'run', 'neilpang/acme.sh', 'bin/sh', '-c'
'"acme.sh --issue --dns dns_azure --dnssleep 10 --force -d "domain";' +
'openssl pkcs12 -inkey /acme.sh/domain/domain.key -in /acme.sh/domain/domain.cer ' +
'-export -out pfx -password pass:password;' +
"curl -X POST -d $curl1 url -H Content-Type:application/json;" +
"curl -X POST -d $curl2 url -H Content-Type:application/json"""
)
docker.exe #dockerArgs
The powershell escape character is a grave-accent ` or you could double-up on the quotes "" to escape double-quotes "`"".