Sponsored Content
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Handling filenames with spaces Post 303023827 by Ralph on Sunday 23rd of September 2018 12:18:37 PM
Old 09-23-2018
Handling filenames with spaces

I'm trying to handle some files with spaces in their name using "" or \ . Like "file 1" or file\ 1.

My current confusion can be expressed by the following shell script:
Code:
#!/bin/bash

touch "file 1" "file 2"
echo -n "ls: " ; ls

echo ---

for file in "file 1" "file 2" ; do 
  echo $file 
done

echo ---
filesToShow=`ls -Q`
echo filesToShow=$filesToShow     #shows filesToShow:"file 1" "file 2" on the screen
echo ---


for file in $filesToShow ; do
   echo $file
done

I create two files whose names have a space in it. Then I list the directory. Files exist.

Then I echo the filenames to the screen using a for-loop with "file 1" "file 2" as the list. That results as expected in two separate lines with the filenames.

Then I list the directory using ls -Q and save the output in the variable filesToShow and echo the variable to the screen. Result: filesToShow="file 1" "file 2"

Then I use another for-loop providing the list via that variable. The result is that the filenames are split into two parts even though they are enclosed in double quotes. Hence I can't do anything with the files like cp or mv. However, cp * .. works, for example.

(I also tried to use ls -b.)

What am I missing?

Last edited by Ralph; 09-23-2018 at 01:25 PM.. Reason: clarification
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

handling spaces in unix

I am testing a ksh script for email. In the script I receive several parameters. One of them is a subject. The subject may contain spaces. Ex. Test this. When I am running the script on telnet to test, how should the syntax at the command line be written. I have this: ksh ResendE.sh '001111'... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: supercbw
2 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

spaces in filenames

I have a problem with the script below #!/bin/sh for vo in `find -maxdepth 1 -type f -regex "^\./*$"` do ls -l "$vo" some other commands done It works fine until `find ...` returns files with spaces. I've tryed to change IFS but haven't succeed Any solutions? (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: Hitori
4 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

how to handle spaces in filenames

I'm trying to do something like that: for $filename in `ls -1` do some_command $filename done but it doesn't work properly for file names with spaces, for...in splits at spaces. Anyway around? (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: rayne
4 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Unix filenames and spaces

I have files on my unix boxes that users have created with spaces. Example: /tmp/project plan ls -l "/tmp/project plan" works fine. $/tmp>ls -l "/tmp/project plan" -rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Jan 31 12:32 /tmp/project plan I created a file called test and put just the... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: x96riley3
2 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

spaces in filenames, for do

Hi All, I see similar problems in past threads but so far no answers have worked for me. I am trying to write a script which parses a txt file that contains one filename per line, then finds those files on the local disk and copies them to a specified directory. What I have: ... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: naviztirf
4 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

spaces in filenames

Hi I hope someone will be able to resolve this little teaser! I am running a script for file in `ls directory` do echo "$file" ...other code here.... done this works fine unless we receive a file with a name which has a space in it ie "filena me" (I know its not good... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: Bab00shka
8 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Moving filenames containing spaces

I want to ftp all the sh files in the directory. Also if any of the file name contains spaces in them, it should be converted to underscores before it is ftped. I wrote the following code below: FILESSH=$(ls /mysh/*.sh) --- FILESH being used here for some other task --- echo "$FILESSH" |... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: amicon007
3 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Handling blank spaces

Hi, I am trying to replace a specific column values in a csv file with double quotes when I am find embedded spaces with in the fields. Example: SNO,NAME,ZIPCODE,RANK,SEX,ADDRESS 1,Robert,74538,12,34, M,Robert Street, NY 2,Sam,07564,13,M,12 Main Ave, CA 3,Kim, Ed,12345,14,M,123D ,... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: techmoris
1 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

awk and spaces in filenames

Hey there, this is my first post and I'll try to explain my situation as best I can.Here is a sample of the input file: ADO Sample.h,v ADO Sample 2010-05-21 lyonsb /repository/patents/TSCommon/OpenSource/Dundass/ug6mfc/DataSources/Ado/ADO Sample ADO SampleDoc.h,v ADO SampleDoc 2010-05-21... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: rodan90
3 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

removing spaces in filenames

I have a problem mounting images because of the spaces in the filenames. Does anyone know how to rename files by removing the spaces with the find command? find Desktop/$dir -name "*.dmg" -print -exec ??? (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: ianebaj
4 Replies
echo(1B)					     SunOS/BSD Compatibility Package Commands						  echo(1B)

NAME
echo - echo arguments to standard output SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/echo [-n] [argument] DESCRIPTION
echo writes its arguments, separated by BLANKs and terminated by a NEWLINE, to the standard output. echo is useful for producing diagnostics in command files and for sending known data into a pipe, and for displaying the contents of envi- ronment variables. For example, you can use echo to determine how many subdirectories below the root directory (/) is your current directory, as follows: o echo your current-working-directory's full pathname o pipe the output through tr to translate the path's embedded slash-characters into space-characters o pipe that output through wc -w for a count of the names in your path. example% /usr/bin/echo "echo $PWD | tr '/' ' ' | wc -w" See tr(1) and wc(1) for their functionality. The shells csh(1), ksh(1), and sh(1), each have an echo built-in command, which, by default, will have precedence, and will be invoked if the user calls echo without a full pathname. /usr/ucb/echo and csh's echo() have an -n option, but do not understand back-slashed escape characters. sh's echo(), ksh's echo(), and /usr/bin/echo, on the other hand, understand the black-slashed escape characters, and ksh's echo() also understands a as the audible bell character; however, these commands do not have an -n option. OPTIONS
-n Do not add the NEWLINE to the output. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWscpu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
csh(1), echo(1), ksh(1), sh(1), tr(1), wc(1), attributes(5) NOTES
The -n option is a transition aid for BSD applications, and may not be supported in future releases. SunOS 5.11 3 Aug 1994 echo(1B)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 01:02 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy