Problem with spaces in the path


 
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# 1  
Old 08-31-2011
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 /bdm/sdd/compounds/AD4833XT/requests/clin/Watson_20090420/docs/MHRA\ Comments\ \&\ Responses
$pwd
/bdm/sdd/compounds/AD4833XT/requests/clin/Watson_20090420/docs/MHRA Comments & Responses
$ls $test
/bdm/sdd/compounds/AD4833XT/requests/clin/Watson_20090420/docs/MHRA\ not found
Comments\ not found
\&\ not found
Responses not found
$ls /bdm/sdd/compounds/AD4833XT/requests/clin/Watson_20090420/docs/MHRA\ Comments\ \&\ Responses
CMC Clinical
# 2  
Old 08-31-2011
Why do you have a path with all kinds of special characters in the first place...and if you really have to then you need to put your variable in double quotes...
Code:
ls "$test"

# 3  
Old 08-31-2011
@shamrock

I tried and got the following error

$ls "$test"
/bdm/sdd/compounds/AD4833XT/requests/clin/Watson_20090420/docs/MHRA\ Comments\ \&\ Responses not found

---------- Post updated at 12:36 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:34 PM ----------

Those were the file created by a users, not me. I am writing a script in which i need to take the permissions on each directory... so i am working on this ans got this issue with file names with spaces and special characters..
# 4  
Old 08-31-2011
The backslashes don't belong in the variable, because they don't actually exist in the name. They're just there in the tab-completion to get the whole name without the string splitting in spaces when un-quoted. So:

Code:
# unquoted
ls /bdm/sdd/compounds/AD4833XT/requests/clin/Watson_20090420/docs/MHRA\ Comments\ \&\ Responses
CMC Clinical
# quoted
ls "/bdm/sdd/compounds/AD4833XT/requests/clin/Watson_20090420/docs/MHRA Comments & Responses"

Note how the backslashes aren't needed when it's in quotes.
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