увеличить максимальное количество открытых файлов (ulimit)

Это работа для встроенного printf?

ldo@theon:~> f='He didn'\''t look back, and said "It can'\''t be helped."'
ldo@theon:~> echo "$f"
He didn't look back, and said "It can't be helped."
ldo@theon:~> ssh hypatia echo "$f"
bash: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `"'
bash: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file
ldo@theon:~> ssh hypatia echo $(printf %q "$f")
He didn't look back, and said "It can't be helped."