Stupid spaces

Hello all.

I know the following question is a dumb one, but I've tried to make a script working and I'm stuck.

I'll try to isolate the problem as follows.

I have a script which at some moment during the execution, needs to cd. So I assumed that the following would work:

file_path='"/some/where/Test Folder/"'
echo "$file_path"
cd "$file_path"

But surprise: it didn't. Every time I try to run it it gives me something like:

$ ./cding.sh
"/some/where/Test Folder/"
./cding.sh: line 5: cd: "/some/where/Test Folder/": No such file or
directory
$

although the Test Folder exist, is in the right path (/some/where/Test Folder) and it's permissions are 777.

Any idea?

TIA

Calin Cosma

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file_path='test foo'
cd "$file_path"

Quoted 36 lines · calin

Hello all.

I know the following question is a dumb one, but I've tried to make a script working and I'm stuck.

I'll try to isolate the problem as follows.

I have a script which at some moment during the execution, needs to cd. So I assumed that the following would work:

file_path='"/some/where/Test Folder/"'
echo "$file_path"
cd "$file_path"

But surprise: it didn't. Every time I try to run it it gives me something like:

$ ./cding.sh
"/some/where/Test Folder/"
./cding.sh: line 5: cd: "/some/where/Test Folder/": No such file or
directory
$

although the Test Folder exist, is in the right path (/some/where/Test Folder) and it's permissions are 777.

Any idea?

TIA

Calin Cosma

Quoted 7 lines

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---------------------------------------------------------------
Incearca acum noul sistem de dating oferit de portalul acasa.ro

Hello all.

file_path='"/some/where/Test Folder/"'
echo "$file_path"
cd "$file_path"

But surprise: it didn't. Every time I try to run it it gives me something like:

$ ./cding.sh
"/some/where/Test Folder/"
./cding.sh: line 5: cd: "/some/where/Test Folder/": No such file or
directory
$

although the Test Folder exist, is in the right path (/some/where/Test Folder) and it's permissions are 777.

Quoted 4 lines · calin

Hello all.

file_path='"/some/where/Test Folder/"'

Quoted 7 lines

echo "$file_path"
cd "$file_path"

But surprise: it didn't. Every time I try to run it it gives me something like:

Quoted 8 lines

$ ./cding.sh
"/some/where/Test Folder/"
./cding.sh: line 5: cd: "/some/where/Test Folder/": No such file or
directory
$

although the Test Folder exist, is in the right path (/some/where/Test Folder) and it's permissions are 777.

It's not lying to you. The directory "/some/where/Test Folder/" doesn't exist, but I bet /some/where/Test Folder/ does. Remove all ' and " from your script and watch it work.

Enjoy.

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Hello all.

I know the following question is a dumb one, but I've tried to make a script working and I'm stuck.

I'll try to isolate the problem as follows.

I have a script which at some moment during the execution, needs to cd. So I assumed that the following would work:

file_path='"/some/where/Test Folder/"'
echo "$file_path"
cd "$file_path"

But surprise: it didn't. Every time I try to run it it gives me something like:

$ ./cding.sh
"/some/where/Test Folder/"
./cding.sh: line 5: cd: "/some/where/Test Folder/": No such file or
directory
$

although the Test Folder exist, is in the right path (/some/where/Test Folder) and it's permissions are 777.

Any idea?

TIA

Calin Cosma

---------------------------------------------------------------
Incearca acum noul sistem de dating oferit de portalul acasa.ro

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instead of the echo do an ls and see what it says.

Steve Cohen

Quoted 42 lines · calin

Hello all.

I know the following question is a dumb one, but I've tried to make a script working and I'm stuck.

I'll try to isolate the problem as follows.

I have a script which at some moment during the execution, needs to cd. So I assumed that the following would work:

file_path='"/some/where/Test Folder/"'
echo "$file_path"
cd "$file_path"

But surprise: it didn't. Every time I try to run it it gives me something like:

$ ./cding.sh
"/some/where/Test Folder/"
./cding.sh: line 5: cd: "/some/where/Test Folder/": No such file or
directory
$

although the Test Folder exist, is in the right path (/some/where/Test Folder) and it's permissions are 777.

Any idea?

TIA

Calin Cosma

---------------------------------------------------------------
Incearca acum noul sistem de dating oferit de portalul acasa.ro

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin"

Quoted 3 lines

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Hello all.

I know the following question is a dumb one, but I've tried to make a script working and I'm stuck.

I'll try to isolate the problem as follows.

I have a script which at some moment during the execution, needs to cd. So I assumed that the following would work:

file_path='"/some/where/Test Folder/"'
echo "$file_path"
cd "$file_path"

But surprise: it didn't. Every time I try to run it it gives me something like:

$ ./cding.sh
"/some/where/Test Folder/"
./cding.sh: line 5: cd: "/some/where/Test Folder/": No such file or
directory
$

although the Test Folder exist, is in the right path (/some/where/Test Folder) and it's permissions are 777.

Any idea?

TIA

Calin Cosma

---------------------------------------------------------------
Incearca acum noul sistem de dating oferit de portalul acasa.ro

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Also,

You are using way to many quotes. Just write this:

file_path="/some/where/Test Folder/"
echo $file_path
cd $file_path

Quoted 8 lines

Also,

You are using way to many quotes. Just write this:

file_path="/some/where/Test Folder/"
echo $file_path
cd $file_path

Did you actually try this? Doesn't work in my shell. I'm sure he tried this first and only got more complicated when it failed to work.

In your above example $file_path is an unquoted string that turns into two args, '/some/where/Test' and 'Folder/', when expanded and passed to cd.

CD

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Looking at this thread, quite a few people seem to have problems with shell quoting.

As a general rule, literal values should be contained within single quotes, i.e.:

file_path='/some/where/Test Folder/'

while variable references should almost always be contained within double quotes:

	cd "$file_path"

Within double quotes, variable expansions (e.g. $foo), command substitutions (e.g. foo or $(foo)), arithmetic substitutions (e.g. $[1+2] or $((1+2)) ) and similar (i.e. anything beginning with or $) are still evaluated, and the backslash character can be used to quote any of $ " \ or a newline.

Within single quotes, everything up to the next single quote is taken literally (including the backslash character). If you need to include a single quote, use '\'', e.g.:

	$ echo 'it'\''s'
	it's

[This parses as 'it' \' 's' (without the spaces), which the shell interprets is it ' s (again, without the spaces).]

Unquoted variable expansions will subsequently be split into words so, as has already been noted, the commands:

file_path='/some/where/Test Folder/'
cd $file_path

will result in the "cd" built-in command being called with two arguments, namely:

/some/where/Test
and:
Folder/

For this reason, variable references should usually be enclosed in double quotes; failure to do so is the main reason why scripts fail on filenames (or other arguments) which contain spaces.

If you have trouble with shell syntax issues generally, it may help to compile and install the following program:

	#include <stdio.h>

	int main(int argc, char **argv)
	{
		int i;
		for (i = 0; i < argc; i++)
			printf("argv[%2d] = '%s'\n", i, argv[i]);
		return 0;
	}

You can then use it to see exactly what the shell is doing with your command line before it gets to the program, e.g.:

	$ file_path='/some/where/Test Folder/'
	$ args $file_path
	argv[ 0] = '/usr/local/bin/args'
	argv[ 1] = '/some/where/Test'
	argv[ 2] = 'Folder/'
	$ args "$file_path"
	argv[ 0] = '/usr/local/bin/args'
	argv[ 1] = '/some/where/Test Folder/'

It may also help to read the bash(1) manpage. OK, so it's a bit more than a "page" (I get 60 pages for 1.x, 86 pages for 2.x) but, if you use the command line regularly, you could easily spend hundreds of hours per year using bash.