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Using Variable With Space In It?

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# 1  
Old 01-20-2009
Using Variable With Space In It?
Hey , I'm new to Bash and am having trouble with writing a script.

I have a variable and want to use it to create a tar file, but, I am having problems. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?


filestr=`date "+%y-%m-%d %H.%M.%S"`.tar
tar -cvf $filestr test.txt



So, basically, I'm creating a tar file based on the datetime in a specific format, but, the problem is that there is a space in the file name, so, the script fails during the tar creation.

Any ideas?
# 2  
Old 01-20-2009
Enclose the tar file name you derived with double quotes, should work

Code:
$ tar -cvf "$(date "+%y-%m-%d %H.%M.%S").tar" work/sni.py

# 3  
Old 01-20-2009
so in your example , it will be

Code:
$ filestr=`date "+%y-%m-%d %H.%M.%S"`.tar
$ tar -cvf "$filestr" test.txt

09-01-21 04.23.34.tar will be created.

# 4  
Old 01-21-2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by beefeater267
Hey , I'm new to Bash and am having trouble with writing a script.

I have a variable and want to use it to create a tar file, but, I am having problems. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Code:
 
filestr=`date "+%y-%m-%d %H.%M.%S"`.tar
tar -cvf $filestr test.txt


Quote "$filestr".
Quote:

So, basically, I'm creating a tar file based on the datetime in a specific format, but, the problem is that there is a space in the file name, so, the script fails during the tar creation.

Any ideas?

The best idea is Don't create files with spaces in their names.

The next important idea is to use the full year, not two digits:

Code:
filestr=`date "+%Y-%m-%d_%H.%M.%S"`.tar
tar cvf "$filestr" test.txt

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