Not gibberish. It’s all explained there: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Shell-Par...

If you’re doing stuff with something, why not read the manual os that thing? Or, at least, the section related to what you’re doing?

Google "bash escape string", click on first result? It mentions both of these options btw.

It's not like it's any easier with python, if I'm new to the language I have to look up shlex anyway.