counting files in multiple directories (zsh)

Berticus · 09-08-2008, 12:04 AM

I can do this:

Code:

#!/bin/zsh
ls /home/Berticus/something/{one,two,three}/test | wc -l

However, if I try to do this:

Code:

#!/bin/zsh
BASEDIR=/home/Berticus/something
DIRS=one,two,three
echo $BASEDIR/{$DIRS}/test
ls $BASEDIR/{$DIRS}/test | wc -l

It tells me

Code:

ls: cannot access /home/Berticus/something/{one,two,three}/test: No such file or directory

Why is it being treated so literally? I tried escaping the brackets as well, but that didn't help at all. I also tried simplifying it to:

Code:

DIRS=/home/Berticus/something/{one,two,three}/test
ls $DIRS | wc -l

And I still got the same results

indeliblestamp · 09-08-2008, 01:32 AM

I'm testing this in bash, and I used this link as reference. It works if I put DIRS as follows:

Code:

bash-2.05b ~/scrap$ DIRS=$(echo ~/scrap/{one,two,three}/)
bash-2.05b ~/scrap$ ls $DIRS|wc
       5       3      88

Ought to work the same way in zsh too, let us know if it doesn't.

Berticus · 09-08-2008, 02:32 AM

yeah, I realized it insurmountably better to put my subdirectories in question in a separate array if I wanted the base directory to be in a separate variable.

arungoodboy, that worked wonderfully.