Login or Register to Ask a Question and Join Our Community

Sponsored Content
Full Discussion: Problem iterating through PATH entries with spaces
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Problem iterating through PATH entries with spaces Post 302421567 by dkarr on Friday 14th of May 2010 07:40:32 PM
Old 05-14-2010
Problem iterating through PATH entries with spaces
I have a Bash script on Cygwin that tries to iterate through the directory entries in PATH. I need to convert the PATH value to a form that I can iterate through with "for var in $list; do".

For instance, an excerpt from my PATH value is this:

:/c/Program Files/Windows Imaging/:/c/Program Files/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.1/bin

I need to somehow coerce this into something I can iterate through, where each original PATH entry goes into a variable.

I tried replacing " " (space) with "\ " (escaped space). That seems correct, but I also have to replace ":" (colon) with " " (space). I also tried replacing ":" with "\n", but that doesn't seem to help. Inside the "for" loop, the value of "var" never includes the full directory name, it always breaks at spaces in the names.

---------- Post updated at 04:40 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:22 PM ----------

Duh. Never mind. I discovered "IFS=$':'". Very simple.
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

cc path problem - no acceptable path found

Hello everyone, I'm a unix noob. I have a powerbook running mac os x 10.4 and for one of my classes I need to install the latest version of php (5.0.5). I'm following the instructions at http://developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/php.html to install but I've run into a problem. The... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: kendokendokendo
2 Replies

2. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Problem with spaces in directory path

Hi Gurus, I have a requirement. cat /usdd/Sample/"NDDF Plus DB"/"NDDF Descriptive and Pricing"/"NDDF BASICS 3.0"/"Pricing"/1.txt | sed 's/*|*/|/g' | sed 's/^*//'| sed 's/^*//; s/*$//' > temp.txt In unix prompt the above command is reading the file 1.txt and I am... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: prabhutkl
1 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Problem iterating in while loop

I am facing a problem in replacing the file contents by iterating through the list. My present code: Code: #!/bin/bash# TFILE="/tmp/vinay/testb_1.txt" while read linedo aline="$line" echo $aline code=`echo $aline|cut -d ',' -f1` country=`echo $aline|cut -d... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: av_vinay
5 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

iterating over results from sqlplus

hi all, i am writing a ksh script, i am logging into an oracle db via sqlplus and running a select statement but i dont know how i can store the results from the sql so i can iterate over it and do more operations over it. I dont want to write a stored procedure with a cursor since i need to... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: cesarNZ
2 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

problem with spaces in filename

I have written a script to run ddrescue on a list of files. #!/bin/bash # # A script to rescue data recursively using ddrescue. srcDir=/damaged/hdd/movies/ #the source directory desDir=/new/hdd/movies/ #the destination directory... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: colsinc
2 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

Problem with spaces in the path

Hi all, I have a variable test has the following value assigned.. could you please help on doing cd or ls to the value in the varible ... $echo $test /bdm/sdd/compounds/AD4833XT/requests/clin/Watson_20090420/docs/MHRA\ Comments\ \&\ Responses $cd $test ksh: cd: bad argument count $cd... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: firestar
3 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Conduct a search or test -f over a path with spaces

I am organizing my music library on a NAS server. I want to print a list of all the directories that are missing the cover art (at least one or more jpeg file). I have successfully created a file with each line containing the path to each occurance of one or more .mp3 files. That path is also... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: godfreydanials
2 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Set problem with spaces

#### ~]$ set "hello 'cat dog walk' money elephat" #### ~]$ echo $* | awk '{print $2}' 'cat why is the second command above showing only "'cat ? shouldn't the output be: 'cat dog walk' how can i fix this so it gives me the chosen column in its entirety? (11 Replies)
Discussion started by: SkySmart
11 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Bash script not parsing file with spaces in path

Hi everyone, I'm trying to write my first ever shell script, the OS is Raspbian. The code I have written must be executed whenever a certain database has been modified. The database resides on a Windows server to which I have a mount point, and I have no control over the Windows server at all so... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: gjws
2 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

Proper way to use a path with spaces in the directory name

I am using the below bash loop: or f in /media/cmccabe/My Book Western Digital/10_29and30_2015/*.bam ; do bname=`basename $f` pref=${bname%%.bam} samtools view -H $f | sed '/^@PG/d' | samtools reheader - $f > /home/cmccabe/Desktop/NGS/${pref}_newheader.bam done is the... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: cmccabe
1 Replies

LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

surfraw-update-path

SURFRAW-UPDATE-PATH(1)					User Contributed Perl Documentation				    SURFRAW-UPDATE-PATH(1)

NAME

       surfraw-update-path - updates PATH in shell config files

SYNOPSIS

       surfraw-update-path [-add] [-remove] [-check] [-sys] [-all] [-help] [-shell=SHELL]

DESCRIPTION

       surfraw-update-path adds the surfraw elvi directory (/usr/lib/surfraw) to your PATH in your shell's config file.

       Currently it supports bash, sh, csh, tcsh, ash, dash, ksh, pdksh, zsh, rc, and es

       Don't forget to login again or source your login files for it to take effect.

OPTIONS

       -check
	   Checks to see if the surfraw config code is present.  This is the default.

       -add
	   Adds the surfraw config code.

       -remove
	   Removes the surfraw config code

       -sys
	   Updates the system-wide shell config instead of the user.  Must be done as root.

       -shell=SHELL
	   Selects the shell to configure. Defaults to the value of the $SHELL environment variable.

	   Currently supported shells are:

	   sh, ash, bash, dash, csh, tcsh, ksh, pdksh, zsh, rc, and es.

       -all
	   Attempts to configure the startup files for all known shells

       -help
	   Gives a usage message

RETURN VALUE

       -check returns 0 if the surfraw code is present in the file, 1 if it is not found, or 2 on error.

       All other options return 0 on success, or 2 on error.

ENVIRONMENT

       SHELL
	   Used to determine which shell to configure, if -shell is not given.

       HOME
	   Used to find users config files.

       ENV Used by posix-compliant shells to specify a startup rc file.

       ZDOTDIR
	   Used to find user config files for zsh. If not set, defaults to HOME.

SEE ALSO

       surfraw(1), sh(1), ash(1), bash(1), dash(1), csh(1), tcsh(1), ksh(1), pdksh(1), zsh(1), rc(1), es(1)

AUTHOR

       Ian Beckwith <ianb@erislabs.net>

perl v5.12.4							    2011-07-12						    SURFRAW-UPDATE-PATH(1)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:01 AM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy