CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
ceth
ceth

Reputation: 45325

Copy file in bash script

I have a bash script that looking at folder and copy files from one folder to another. The scripts is big enough, but here is just a two lines from it:

echo cp $working_directory/$folder_name/$f $new_filename
# cp $working_directory/$folder_name/$f $new_filename

Here is output of echo command:

cp ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres/a.pdf ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres_1.pdf
cp ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres/b.pdf ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres_2.pdf

I can launch any of this command and it works fine in the terminal.
But if I uncomment the real copy command and launch the script I will get the error:

cp ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres/a.pdf ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres_1.pdf
cp: ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres/a.pdf: No such file or directory
cp ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres/b.pdf ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres_2.pdf
cp: ~/MEGAsync/development/experiments/bash_renamer/tres/b.pdf: No such file or directory

Why I have this error and how can I fix it ?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 339

Answers (3)

jimm-cl
jimm-cl

Reputation: 5422

This is not working because, most likely, in your $working_directory variable definition you have the tilde ~ quoted, thus the tilde expansion in bash is not working.

Tilde Expansion

If a word begins with an unquoted tilde character (‘~’), all of the characters up to the first unquoted slash (or all characters, if there is no unquoted slash) are considered a tilde-prefix. If none of the characters in the tilde-prefix are quoted, the characters in the tilde-prefix following the tilde are treated as a possible login name.

~ 
The value of $HOME

~/foo 
$HOME/foo

Upvotes: 2

CoderDake
CoderDake

Reputation: 1547

It looks like the tilde ~ that is part of the variable is not being expanded. Maybe try doing this first?:

eval working_directory=$working_directory

Upvotes: 0

Arusekk
Arusekk

Reputation: 881

I think that the problem is with the ~ sign. If the echo prints it as it is, it means, that it looks for directory with name ~ in the working dir. You can replace ~ with $HOME or try to execute the command some different way.

Upvotes: 3

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