LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Handling directories with white spaces in bash script

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Handling directories with white spaces in bash script

Hey all, I'm new to bash-scripting and trying to write a script which involves calling a command with a string stored as a variable, which is a directory path that contains whitespaces.

For example, consider the following very simple script;

Code:

#! /bin/bash

path="./this\ is\ a\ test\ dir/"



ls $path

The output of the script is,

Code:

./test.sh 

ls: cannot access ./this\: No such file or directory

ls: cannot access is\: No such file or directory

ls: cannot access a\: No such file or directory

ls: cannot access test\: No such file or directory

ls: cannot access dir/: No such file or directory

however typing the command directly in the terminal works fine,

Code:

 ls ./this\ is\ a\ test\ dir/

success!.txt

Can someone explain how to properly handle the whitespaces in the directory name (using the example script I posted) so I can accomplish what I'm trying to?

Thanks!

You need to quote it when it's used

Code:

$ path=this\ is\ a\ test

$ ls "$path"

ls: cannot access this is a test: No such file or directory

$ path="this is a test"

$ ls "$path"

ls: cannot access this is a test: No such file or directory

Ah, I tried that but I guess you can't use the '\ ' delimiters and quotes at the same time... thanks!