ls with whitespace in filenames

jhwilliams · 06-30-2007, 11:32 AM

I'm writing a shell script to process some files on an ntfs filesystem drive to get them off and onto an ext3. In the windows spirit, these directories have names like "My Really Cool Dir/", etc. When I write

Code:

for directory in `ls -ad */`; do
...
done

the whitespace is used as a string delimiter, which is no good for my purposes. This is an issue with ls, so

Code:

for directory in `ls -ad */ | sed 's| |\ |g'`; do

isn't fixing it.

I'm sure this is childsplay for someone with more experience! Help?

acid_kewpie · 06-30-2007, 11:56 AM

you're probably better off doing whatever your doing with a find command...

find /var/where/ever -exec rm {} \;

to, in this example, sequentially delete each file found. each file name stays as a known variable within the script, so whitespace never matters.

to stick with ls, try

ls -1ad | while read filename
do
echo file name is $filename
done

as read will read one line at a time, not one word at a time. also you can screw around with the IFS shell variable so for delimits on a newline instead of a space...

jschiwal · 06-30-2007, 12:24 PM

If you have filenames with spaces in them in variables, be sure to put double quotes around the variables when using the variables in a script.

For example:

Code:

for texts in /mnt/windows/Documents\ and\ Settings/jhwilliams/My\ Documents/*.[tT][xX][tT]; do
cp "$file" ~/Documents/"$file"
done
for pdfdocs in /mnt/windows/All\ Users/My\ Documents/*.PDF; do
mv "$file" ~/Documents/"${file// /_}"
done

The Second line replaces spaces in the files with the the underscore character.

If you have two files in a director: "file name1.ext" and "another file.ext", if yo u have a command like
for file in *;
do
# something here
done

The first time in the loop, $file contains "file name1.ext", and not "file\ name1.ext". The "\" characters are used when typing such files in the shell interactively to escape the whitespace, preventing the shell from separating the filename into two arguments. Once you press enter, their job is done. They have already done their job.

dr34m3r · 06-30-2007, 08:14 PM

just put this after the shebang (#!)

Code:

IFS=$'\n'

The variable IFS (or inter-field separator) in BASH determines what characters act as delimiters. By default space, tab and newline characters are used as delimiters. The variable can also be used to define custom delimiters like comma, colon etc..

After this you can use your directory variable for referring to your windows folders

phidor · 06-30-2007, 11:00 PM

On the Command line, with a file or a directory named "Split Name", I refer to it as "Split*" and have no trouble. In my experience a file or directory name with white space in it invites trouble sooner or later. I use data file or folder names, not only free from white space but (at least after the first level where defaults like "Pictures" run wild), with entirely lower case characters. I retain folder names like "Pictures" etc with their uppercase starting character because sometimes software is also twisted that way.

For speed and ease using the Command Line, I've found it handy with file or folder names, to try to have a unique filename character or two at the start of the name. Commands like
"cp P*/k*/p*/f*/g* De*" save a lot of typing!

Phidor.

acid_kewpie · 07-01-2007, 03:14 AM

well "Split*" will match "Split Names", "Split Peas" and "Split Mlik"... that's not going to any use in the long run is it?

seems to me you've probably not got as comfortable with bash tab auto completion as would really suit... no need for crude workarounds whenbash will fill in the rest of the file name for you correctly.

phidor · 07-01-2007, 03:34 AM

Thanks Chris! Tried it and very pleased to get this lost marble spinning! Phidor.