---
name: "debconf-escape"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "debconf"
version: "1.5.91"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/debconf-escape"
---

# debconf-escape(1)

helper when working with debconf's escape capability

## NAME

debconf-escape - helper when working with debconf's escape capability

## SYNOPSIS

```
 debconf-escape -e < unescaped-text
 debconf-escape -u < escaped-text
```

## DESCRIPTION

When debconf has the 'escape' capability set, it will expect commands you send it to have backslashes and newlines escaped (as `"\\"` and `"\n"` respectively) and will in turn escape backslashes and newlines in its replies. This can be used, for example, to substitute multi-line strings into templates, or to get multi-line extended descriptions reliably using `"METAGET"`.

## SEE ALSO

[**debconf-devel**(7)](/debconf-devel/7.md) (available in the debconf-doc package)

## AUTHOR

Colin Watson \<cjwatson@debian.org\>