[SOLVED] Subject: Can't make a list of Directories since some names contain spaces.

andrew.comly · 06-26-2017, 10:28 AM

I would like to make a list of all directories in a parent directory.

Code:

mkdir -p ee/{"unit 1","unit 2","unit 3","unit 4"}
$ tree -Ra ee
├── unit 1
├── unit 2
├── unit 3
└── unit 4
4 directories, 0 files

$ find ee/* -type d | wc -l
4

At this point everybody can see there are only 4 directories.

So I now attempt to make a list of these directories whose names contain spaces.

Attempt01:

Code:

$ DIRList=$(find ee/* -type d)

$ echo $DIRList
ee/unit 1 ee/unit 2 ee/unit 3 ee/unit 4

$ echo $DIRList | wc -w
8

$ echo $DIRList | wc -l
1

Unfortunately this list splits the directory names up by the spaces they contain.

Attempt02:

Code:

ls -1a ee

results in 6 directories, not 4, and "ee/*" results in 15 directories

Attempt03:

Code:

$ ls -d ee/*
ee/unit 1  ee/unit 2  ee/unit 3  ee/unit 4
$ echo $aList | wc -w
8

As you can see by the "8", same problem as attempt01

Attempt04:

Code:

ls -l ee/ | grep ^d
drwxrwxr-x 2 a a 4096  6月 26 22:19 unit 1
drwxrwxr-x 2 a a 4096  6月 26 22:19 unit 2
drwxrwxr-x 2 a a 4096  6月 26 22:19 unit 3
drwxrwxr-x 2 a a 4096  6月 26 22:19 unit 4
$ ls -l ee/ | grep ^d | awk '{for(i=9;i<NF;i++)printf$i}'
unitunitunitunit

Even awk cuts the parts of the DIR name off after the space.

Is there anyway of making a list of all DIR, including ones whose DIR names include spaces?

suicidaleggroll · 06-26-2017, 10:34 AM

Lots of options

1) Don't store the output of ls in an intermediate variable, just pipe it straight to wc
2) Use the "-1" flag in ls
3) Use the print0 flag in find to print out the names with null terminators, then use the files0-from flag in wc to read it properly

I'm sure there are many more

BW-userx · 06-26-2017, 10:46 AM

You know wc -w is times 2 because of split dir names so just do the math

Code:

userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> echo $(($(ls ./ee | wc -w ) / 2))
4

or

Code:

userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> dirlist=$(($(find ./ee -type d | wc -w) / 2 ))
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> echo $dirlist
4

or

Code:

userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> dirlist=$(find ./ee -type d)
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> echo $(($(echo $dirlist | wc -w) / 2))
4

Code:

good morning userx
userx%voider ⚡ ~ ⚡> mkdir testDIR ; cd testDIR
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> mkdir -p ee/{"unit 1","unit 2","unit 3","unit 4"}
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> ls
ee
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> ls ee
'unit 1'  'unit 2'  'unit 3'  'unit 4'
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> ls -la ee
total 24
drwxr-xr-x 6 userx userx 4096 Jun 26 10:43  .
drwxr-xr-x 3 userx userx 4096 Jun 26 10:43  ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 userx userx 4096 Jun 26 10:43 'unit 1'
drwxr-xr-x 2 userx userx 4096 Jun 26 10:43 'unit 2'
drwxr-xr-x 2 userx userx 4096 Jun 26 10:43 'unit 3'
drwxr-xr-x 2 userx userx 4096 Jun 26 10:43 'unit 4'
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> dirlist=$(find ./ee -type d)
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡> echo $dirlist
./ee ./ee/unit 1 ./ee/unit 2 ./ee/unit 3 ./ee/unit 4
userx%voider ⚡ testDIR ⚡>

this here giving 8

Code:

$ DIRList=$(find ee/* -type d)

$ echo $DIRList
ee/unit 1 ee/unit 2 ee/unit 3 ee/unit 4
  1     2     3   4    5    6     7   8

$ echo $DIRList | wc -w
8

$ echo $DIRList | wc -l
1

wc - l is one line = correct

NevemTeve · 06-26-2017, 11:06 AM

@OP: What do you actually want to accomplish? What is your real goal?

Laserbeak · 06-26-2017, 12:22 PM

If you want an answer in Perl, I'll write one. But I'm not going to waste time to make one if you're just going to say you don't like Perl or something (like so many have to me in the past).

rtmistler · 06-26-2017, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew.comly

I would like to make a list of all directories in a parent directory.
...
Is there anyway of making a list of all DIR, including ones whose DIR names include spaces?

Sorry, but have you tried:

Code:

$ find . -type d

Or am I missing something here?

Habitual · 06-26-2017, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew.comly

Is there anyway of making a list of all DIR, including ones whose DIR names include spaces?

a few actually.

Code:

mkdir -pv ee/{"unit 1","unit 2","unit 3","unit 4"}

is my setup.local to utilize

Code:

find `pwd` -type d -name "unit [1234]"

which spews

Code:

/home/jj/ee/unit 4
/home/jj/ee/unit 2
/home/jj/ee/unit 3
/home/jj/ee/unit 1

Code:

dirlist=$(find `pwd` -type d -name "unit [1234]")

and then

Code:

echo "$dirlist" 
/home/jj/ee/unit 4
/home/jj/ee/unit 2
/home/jj/ee/unit 3
/home/jj/ee/unit 1

|wc -l
4 here.

See also http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashPitfalls.

Laserbeak · 06-26-2017, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rtmistler

Sorry, but have you tried:

Code:

$ find . -type d

Or am I missing something here?

LOL, yes that should work to just count the number of directories, just pipe that to wc -l:

Code:

find parentdir -type d | wc -l

Spaces should have no effect.

I get the feeling he may end up wanting more done though...

BW-userx · 06-26-2017, 12:56 PM

TO Expand on @Habitual line of thought,
if you do not know the names of the said dir.

Code:

userx%slackwhere ⚡ testDIR ⚡> DL=$(find `pwd` -type d -name "[A-Za-z]* [0-9]")
userx%slackwhere ⚡ testDIR ⚡> echo $DL
/home/userx/testDIR/ee/unit 1 
/home/userx/testDIR/ee/unit 2 
/home/userx/testDIR/ee/unit 3 
/home/userx/testDIR/ee/unit 4
userx%slackwhere ⚡ testDIR ⚡>

andrew.comly · 06-27-2017, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NevemTeve

@OP: What do you actually want to accomplish? What is your real goal?

This post describes the purpose.

andrew.comly · 06-27-2017, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rtmistler

Sorry, but have you tried:

Code:

$ find . -type d

Or am I missing something here?

Yes, find . -type d was previously attempted. Also List=$(find . -type d) was previously attempted, and due to some dir/file names containing spaces, the list is broken (application).

andrew.comly · 06-27-2017, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laserbeak

If you want an answer in Perl, I'll write one. But I'm not going to waste time to make one if you're just going to say you don't like Perl or something (like so many have to me in the past).

I really do appreciate your team spirit, and hope to be able to help you sometime in the future. The only problem is that I am just an independent bash programming student, and haven't even learned how a shellscript can call a perl script yet. This doesn't mean that I don't regard perl as an outstanding language to learn, it's just that it might distract me in my current stage of development. This specific question is no emergency.

andrew.comly · 06-27-2017, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laserbeak

LOL, yes that should work to just count the number of directories, just pipe that to wc -l:

Code:

find parentdir -type d | wc -l

Spaces should have no effect.

I get the feeling he may end up wanting more done though...

Your right when only counting the amount of lines(how many directories).

Unfortunately, when making a "list", the spaces for this purpose, the spaces end up breaking the list up.

rknichols · 06-27-2017, 10:03 PM

It's a lot easier just to let the find command do the work an not have to worry about how the shell will parse the resulting list.

Code:

find AC -type d -exec chmod 700 {} \;
find AC -type f -exec chmod 600 {} +

The first command tells find to execute the chmod command immediately on each directory it discovers since it can't descend into a directory until the appropriate permission has been set. The second command, ending with "+" instead of "\;" allows find to pass as many file names as it can to each invocation of chmod.

NevemTeve · 06-27-2017, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew.comly

This post describes the purpose.

If you mean you want to perform chmod on more than one files/directories, then it is an XY-problem
use find(1): http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...0/#post5707388