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Full Discussion: Dealing with white spaces in bash scripts
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Dealing with white spaces in bash scripts Post 302781471 by venmx on Saturday 16th of March 2013 04:26:35 PM
Old 03-16-2013
Dealing with white spaces in bash scripts
I'm trying to search for all files in directory with particular GID then change the GID to match the UID of each file:

Code:
#!/bin/sh

for i in $(find /dump -gid 200 | sed 's/\ /\\\ /g' | sed 's/\&/\\\&/g'); do
  chgrp $(ls -ln ${i} | awk '{print $3}') ${i}
done

I'm using sed to deal with spaces and special characters.

I get a clean output from the find command when run on its own; I also get the desired result when I run chgrp and substitute a line from output of find into each instance of variable ${i}.

But when I run the script, I get many errors and not all the files/directories have been chgrp as desired.

Here's an excerpt of the errors I'm seeing:

Code:
chgrp: missing operand after `/dump/aaa36/.evolution/memos/config'
Try `chgrp --help' for more information.
chgrp: missing operand after `/dump/aaa36/.evolution/calendar/config'
Try `chgrp --help' for more information.
chgrp: missing operand after `/dump/aaa36/.evolution/tasks/config'
Try `chgrp --help' for more information.
chgrp: missing operand after `/dump/aaa36/.evolution/cache'
Try `chgrp --help' for more information.
ls: cannot access /dump/aaa36/untitled\: No such file or directory
chgrp: missing operand after `/dump/aaa36/untitled\\'
Try `chgrp --help' for more information.
ls: cannot access folder: No such file or directory
chgrp: missing operand after `folder'
Try `chgrp --help' for more information.
ls: cannot access /dump/aaa36/untitled\: No such file or directory
chgrp: missing operand after `/dump/aaa36/untitled\\'
Try `chgrp --help' for more information.
ls: cannot access folder/neutron_EDM.pdf: No such file or directory
chgrp: missing operand after `folder/neutron_EDM.pdf'
Try `chgrp --help' for more information.

Please tell me what I'm doing wrong?! Thanks :-)

---------- Post updated at 08:26 PM ---------- Previous update was at 07:56 PM ----------

OK, solved my own problem...

It's because for loops process space as field separators. I found a neat way to get around this:

Code:
#!/bin/sh

SAVEIFS=$IFS
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")

for i in $(find /dump -gid 200 | sed 's/\s\+/\\ /g' | sed 's/\&\+/\\\&/g'); do
  chgrp $(ls -ln ${i} | awk '{print $3}') ${i}

done

IFS=$SAVEIFS

Thanks to: nixCraft (BASH Shell: For Loop File Names With Spaces)
 

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LEARN ABOUT MOJAVE

chgrp

CHGRP(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 						  CHGRP(1)

NAME

     chgrp -- change group

SYNOPSIS

     chgrp [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] group file ...

DESCRIPTION

     The chgrp utility sets the group ID of the file named by each file operand to the group ID specified by the group operand.

     The following options are available:

     -f      The force option ignores errors, except for usage errors and doesn't query about strange modes (unless the user does not have proper
	     permissions).

     -H      If the -R option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed.  (Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal
	     are not followed).

     -h      If the file is a symbolic link, the group ID of the link itself is changed rather than the file that is pointed to.

     -L      If the -R option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.

     -P      If the -R option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.  This is the default. Use -h to change the group ID of a symbolic
	     link.

     -R      Change the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted in the files instead of just the files themselves.

     -v      Cause chgrp to be verbose, showing files as the group is modified.

     The -H, -L and -P options are ignored unless the -R option is specified.  In addition, these options override each other and the command's
     actions are determined by the last one specified.

     The group operand can be either a group name from the group database, or a numeric group ID.  If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the
     operand is used as a group name.

     The user invoking chgrp must belong to the specified group and be the owner of the file, or be the super-user.

DIAGNOSTICS

     The chgrp utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

COMPATIBILITY

     In previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have groups.

     The -v option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.

FILES

     /etc/group  group ID file

SEE ALSO

     chown(2), fts(3), group(5), passwd(5), symlink(7), chown(8)

STANDARDS

     The chgrp utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.

BSD
								  March 31, 1994							       BSD
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