Backslash at the end of the attribute value

[František Kučera]

Hello,

I am writing a Recfile parser/generator and I am currently stuck at the correct syntax of the \ character at the end of attribute values.

According to the <https://www.gnu.org/software/recutils/manual/Fields.html#Fields> documentation, the \ at the end of the line says, that the value continues on next (physical) line without any (logical) line-end.

In most cases this simple rule works well. But what if the value ends with \ character? How can I say that this \ is not a line continuation but part of the value? If we have for example this CSV:

    $ echo -e 'a,b\na\\,b\nA,B'
    a,b
    a\,b
    A,B

How it should be serialized in Recfile? Running it through csv2rec and recsel unfortunately does not give an answer:

    $ echo -e 'a,b\na\\,b\nA,B' | csv2rec | recsel
    a: ab: b
   
    a: A
    b: B

I can add a space after the \ which avoids the main problem, but it also changes the value ("a\" vs. "a\ ").

Thanks,
Franta