Gitlab: How to pass variable containing "$" special characters to another stage?

Question

In Gitlab, need to pass a variable containing special character "$" to another stage via artifacts.

What I tried:

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - my_var='Admini$trator'
    - echo "pass=$my_var" >> build.env
  artifacts:
    reports:
      dotenv: build.env 

test:
  stage: test
  needs:
    - job: build
      artifacts: true
  script:
    - echo $pass 

The output is "Admini" instead of "Admini$trator". I also tried escaping with backslash "Admini\$trator" but I get "Admini\".

What is the correct way to escape artifact variables?

Later edit: Also tried pass=$${my_var} and echo 'pass=$my_var'

Answer 1

I found a solution. This might be the most dirty workaround I ever did:

1. surround "$" with backslashes: my_var='Admini\$\trator'

   What it does: it escapes "$" in stage 1 and prevents the variable substitution in stage 2. In stage 2 the variable value will become: 'Admini$\trator'

2. replace "$\" with "$". I used python for this:

   pass=$(python -c "s='$pass'.replace('\$\\\\', '\$'); print (s)")

Overall:

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - my_var='Admini\$\trator'
    - echo "pass=$my_var" >> build.env
  artifacts:
    reports:
      dotenv: build.env 

test:
  stage: test
  needs:
    - job: build
      artifacts: true
  script:
    - pass=$(python -c "s='$pass'.replace('\$\\\\', '\$'); print (s)")
    - echo $pass # outputs Admini$trator correctly

If you have a string containing other special characters you can use this function inside stage 1:

    script:
        - |
          escape_special_characters() {
            local input="$1"
            local escaped_string
            local result
    
            escaped_string=$(printf '%q' "$input")
            result=$(python3 -c "s='$escaped_string'.replace('\\\\\$','\$\\\\'); print(s)") # Replace '\$' with '$\'
            
            echo "$result"
          }
        - echo escaped_pass=$(escape_special_characters "$pass") >> build.env