UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

our user creates a text file with a white space on the filename. this same file is transfered to unix via automation tool. i have a korn shell script that reads these files on a input directory and connects to oracle database to run the oracle procedures which will load the data from each of the files. it appears to be that my code does not recognize a file that has a white space on it's filename. i am using a simple for loop with a combination of ls -1 *.* commands on my code. i think i might be missing something.

below is the sample of snippet of the code that i use to simulate the result.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/ksh
cd /u02/app/bdms/dev/in
echo "simple ls -latr results in:\n"
ls -latr
echo "\n"
echo "when using for loop:"
for filename in $(ls -1 *.*)
do
 echo "files: $filename"
done
cd $HOME/apps

when the above code is run below is the results.

Code:

$ sh sample_dirlist.sh
simple ls -latr results in:

total 16
drwxr-xr-x    3 oracle   oracle          256 Aug 20 2009  ..
-rw-rw----    1 bdmsftdv staff          1174 Jan 06 16:43 Test 1 LFD.csv
drwxrwx---    2 bdmsftdv bdmsgrp         256 Jan 06 17:07 .
-rw-rw----    1 bdmsftdv staff          1204 Jan 09 13:59 Test 2 LFD.csv


when using for loop:
files: Test
files: 1
files: LFD.csv
files: Test
files: 2
files: LFD.csv

please help. thank you.

*.* is a DOS thing, to specify all files in UNIX only * is necessary.

That's a useless use of ls * and useless use of backticks besides.

Do it without the ls and it works.

Code:

for FILE in *
do
        echo "File is $FILE"
done

Be careful to always quote the filename when you use it. mv $FILE destination/ will mess up when $FILE contains spaces, mv "$FILE" destination/ won't.

thanks so much that works