CODEWITHSUNDEEP
arraysbash
Matt Fellows
Matt Fellows

Reputation: 6522

Bash scripting ls with spaces in the argument, when the argument is coming from an array

I have the following code:

entries=("Wet\ Picnic" "Arizona\ Jones" "Bikeboy")
for arg in "${entries[@]}"; do ls -lh $arg.* ; done

It gives me 4 errors and 1 success. I'd really like it to give me 3 successes.

How do I handle the fact that the arguments to ls contain spaces (I've obviously tried escaping them as that's how it is currently), but to no avail.

The console output is currently.

ls: Wet: No such file or directory
ls: Picnic: No such file or directory
ls: Arizona: No such file or directory
ls: Jones: No such file or directory
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jun 27 17:55 Bikeboy.png

SO it's clearly splitting on the space. Even though it's escaped.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 199

Answers (1)

Carl Norum
Carl Norum

Reputation: 224944

You're escaping in the wrong spot. Try this example:

entries=("Wet Picnic" "Arizona Jones" "Bikeboy")
for arg in "${entries[@]}"; do ls -lh "$arg".* ; done

It should work fine. Here's a complete example, including the "People's Stage" you mentioned in the comments:

$ ls
Arizona Jones.png   People's Stage.png  example*
Bikeboy.png         Wet Picnic.png
$ cat example 
#!/bin/bash

entries=("Wet Picnic" "Arizona Jones" "Bikeboy" "People's Stage")
for arg in "${entries[@]}"; do ls -lh "$arg".* ; done
$ ./example 
-rw-r--r--  1 carl  staff     0B Jun 27 10:00 Wet Picnic.png
-rw-r--r--  1 carl  staff     0B Jun 27 10:00 Arizona Jones.png
-rw-r--r--  1 carl  staff     0B Jun 27 10:01 Bikeboy.png
-rw-r--r--  1 carl  staff     0B Jun 27 10:11 People's Stage.png

Upvotes: 7

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