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Full Discussion: The "read" command misinterprets file names containing spaces
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting The "read" command misinterprets file names containing spaces Post 302590013 by Corona688 on Friday 13th of January 2012 12:50:20 PM
Old 01-13-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by LessNux
If "ls" correctly understands scene*.sh without quotes for "scene 1.sh" and "scene 2.sh", then I would like the script to understand it in the same manner as "ls".
It's got nothing to do with ls. ls doesn't know what * means.

The shell script understands that, if you're doing globbing, you want literal unmangled filenames, so * gets you literal unmangled filenames. The shell also understands that "thing in spaces" means a literal string and doesn't split it.

If your actual string contains quotes, that's an entirely different thing than a quoted string, though. To get that string in shell you'd have to do "\"thing in quotes\"". The shell doesn't unwrap the second layer of quotes because it thinks you want them, and won't do that kind of double think unless you tell it to -- which is a good thing, because if it did process everything it found in a variable, someone could type `sudo rm -Rf /` into your input and wipe your system.

That sort of shenanigans is why I wouldn't reccomend using eval to force the shell to evaluate the quotes, either. It'd technically work but would be a frightening security hole.

xargs also processes quotes, though! I've spent more time fighting that feature than using it, forcing xargs to use raw filenames containing spaces or quotes, but it might actually be useful here...

Code:
# Green is typed input, red is what xargs prints
$ xargs printf "%s\n"
"file with spaces" file_without_spaces
^D
file with spaces
file_without_spaces
$

So:

Code:
printf "Enter list of files: "
read LINE

echo "$LINE" | xargs printf "%s\n" > /tmp/$$
while read FILENAME
do
        echo "Got filename $FILENAME"
done < /tmp/$$
rm -f /tmp/$$

Last edited by Corona688; 01-13-2012 at 01:57 PM.. Reason: typos
 

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LEARN ABOUT OSF1

line

line(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   line(1)

NAME

       line - Reads one line from standard input

SYNOPSIS

       line

STANDARDS

       Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows:

       line:  XCU5.0

       Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags.

OPTIONS

       None

DESCRIPTION

       The  line  command  copies one line, up to and including a newline, from standard input and writes it to standard output.  Use this command
       within a shell command file to read from your terminal.	The line command always writes at least a newline character.

NOTES

       The line utility has no internationalization features and is marked LEGACY in XCU Issue 5. Use the read utility instead.

EXIT STATUS

       Success.  End-of-File.

EXAMPLES

       To read a line from the keyboard and append it to a file, enter: echo 'Enter comments for the log:' echo ': c' line >>log

       This shell procedure displays the message: Enter comments for the log:

       It then reads a line of text from the keyboard and adds it to the end of the file log.  The echo  ':  c'  command  displays  a	:  (colon)
       prompt.	See the echo command for information about the c escape sequence.

SEE ALSO

       Commands:  echo(1), ksh(1), read(1), Bourne shell sh(1b), POSIX shell sh(1p)

       Functions:  read(2)

       Standards:  standards(5)

																	   line(1)
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