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Spaces in filenames located in variables in shell.

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Spaces in filenames located in variables in shell.
# 1  
Old 11-07-2010
Spaces in filenames located in variables in shell.
Greetings.

I am trying to do a script that will do some file copying for me. Unfortunately I have spaces in the directory names (which I cannot change) and the result is someone hard to achieve in shell scripts. I have searched everywhere on the web but does not manage to find the answer to this:

Code:
orig_dir='/Applications/My cool app/'$1'/'
`cp $orig_dir'file1' .`

(the above example is just a fake one to get help with my actual problem).

It will generate the error:

Code:
cp: /Applications/My: No such file or directory

I have tried with \, with \\ and with \\\. I also found an article on the web that claimed that "My' 'cool' 'app" should work so I tried that too. Nothing works.

Help?
# 2  
Old 11-07-2010
Hi, welcome to the forum. Perhaps you could try this:
Code:
orig_dir="/Applications/My cool app/$1"
cp "$orig_dir/file1" .

# 3  
Old 11-07-2010
Impressive!

It worked! Smilie

... but I got another problem Smilie

So, now it works with the primary copying, but the secondary copying has * in it, and that doesn't work now...

Code:
orig_dir="/Applications/My cool app/$1/"
file_to_copy="$orig_dir$one_single_file"
# This works, yea, thanks!:
cp -v "$file_to_copy" .

file_array=( "lotsoffiles1*" "lotsoffiles2\*" "lotsoffiles3\\*" lotsoffiles4\\\* )
for a_bunch_of_files in ${file_array[@]}
do
	file_to_copy="$orig_dir$a_bunch_of_files"
	cp -v "$file_to_copy" .
done

The second cp (inside the for loop), hates me. As you can see in the file_array I tried lots of different tactics, with these results:

Code:
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles1*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles2\*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles3\*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles4\*: No such file or directory.

Can you (or anyone) solve that too?

---------- Post updated at 11:23 AM ---------- Previous update was at 11:18 AM ----------

Noticed that I had forgot "-signs on nr. 4 so I tested:

Code:
file_array=( "lotsoffiles1*" "lotsoffiles2\*" "lotsoffiles3\\*" "lotsoffiles4\\\*" )

Which resulted in:

Code:
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles1*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles2\*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles3\*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles4\\*: No such file or directory.

And:

Code:
file_array=( lotsoffiles1* lotsoffiles2\* lotsoffiles3\\* lotsoffiles4\\\* )

which gave:

Code:
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles1*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles2*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles3\*: No such file or directory.
/Applications/My Cool App/andersdirectory/lotsoffiles4\*: No such file or directory.

---------- Post updated at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous update was at 11:23 AM ----------

AHA! Smilie

Removed the * in the Array and did:

Code:
cp -v "$file_to_copy"* .

Inside the loop worked wonders.

Thanks for the help! Smilie
# 4  
Old 11-07-2010
Try this:
Code:
orig_dir="/Applications/My cool app/$1/"
file_array=( "$origdir"lotsoffiles[1-4]* )
for file in "${file_array[@]}"; do
  cp -v "$file" .
done

Edit: cool. you found out yourself...
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