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Full Discussion: File paths with spaces in a variable
Operating Systems OS X (Apple) File paths with spaces in a variable Post 302739491 by bakunin on Tuesday 4th of December 2012 09:17:58 AM
Old 12-04-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by tillett22
Hi all my very first post so go easy on me!!
No problem: would you please use CODE-tags when posting code? Thank you.

Quote:
Code:
#!/bin/bash
X="/Library/Users/Application\ Support/"

LS="ls"
AL="-al"

$LS $AL $X

I know this is a problem with the space in the file path but I thought the "" would pass to the commandline with no issues but I am wrong.
True. The problem is in the last line: your definition of "X" is ok, since the space is protected there (try removing the double quotes and you will get an error if you remove the escape "\" too). But when your script gets to the last line it first replaces "$X" with its contents and only then executes the line. This is "ls" is presented two parameters, separated by a space (which was no longer protected) the first and the second part of "$X". "ls" is fine with getting two paths, but these two paths, "/Library/Users/Application" and "Support/" do not exist, hence you get two errors, one for the first missing path and one for the second.

Use

Code:
$LS $AL "$X"

or, if you are completely paranoid, like me:

Code:
"$LS" "$AL" "$X"

and it will work as expected.

I hope this helps.

bakunin
 

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

lappend

lappend(3tcl)						       Tcl Built-In Commands						     lappend(3tcl)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NAME

       lappend - Append list elements onto a variable

SYNOPSIS

       lappend varName ?value value value ...?
_________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

       This  command  treats  the  variable given by varName as a list and appends each of the value arguments to that list as a separate element,
       with spaces between elements.  If varName does not exist, it is created as a list with elements given by the value arguments.   Lappend	is
       similar	to append except that the values are appended as list elements rather than raw text.  This command provides a relatively efficient
       way to build up large lists.  For example, "lappend a $b" is much more efficient than "set a [concat $a [list $b]]" when $a is long.

EXAMPLE

       Using lappend to build up a list of numbers.
	      % set var 1
	      1
	      % lappend var 2
	      1 2
	      % lappend var 3 4 5
	      1 2 3 4 5

SEE ALSO

       list(3tcl), lindex(3tcl), linsert(3tcl), llength(3tcl), lset(3tcl), lsort(3tcl), lrange(3tcl)

KEYWORDS

       append, element, list, variable

Tcl																     lappend(3tcl)
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