CODEWITHSUNDEEP
shelldirectoryscp
Marco Almeida
Marco Almeida

Reputation: 1303

How to copy using scp on shell script to folders space named?

Hey guys I am working on this app that connects to Raspberry Pi through SSH. I use NSTask and NSPipe and shell scripts to execute the shell commands through the Mac app GUI.

The problem is that when I want to copy using "scp" command I get "No such file or directory" error with folders with spaces on its name. If the path is "/Users/home/Desktop/New Files/" doesn't work, but if "/Users/home/Desktop/New Files/" works fine.

The app must be able to use both, separated named folders and not separated, but I just don't know how to do it.

Here is my shell script command:

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/ssh [email protected] \
/usr/bin/scp /home/pi/"${1}" [email protected]:/Users/home/Documents/New Files/

The "X"on the ip was intentionally removed and it's not on the real code.

So, anyone could help????

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2268

Answers (3)

that other guy
that other guy

Reputation: 123470

This is tricky because it requires multiple levels of escaping.

First, start with the actual path:

[email protected]:/Users/home/Documents/New Files/

Now escape it for the shell:

"[email protected]:/Users/home/Documents/New Files/"

Now escape it for scp, since scp accepts shell glob patterns and not filenames:

/usr/bin/scp /home/pi/"${1}" "[email protected]:/Users/home/Documents/New\\ Files/"

Now escape it for ssh, since ssh will evaluate it in a shell:

/usr/bin/ssh [email protected] \
    /usr/bin/scp /home/pi/"${1}"  \
      '"[email protected]:/Users/home/Documents/New\\ Files/"'

This takes care of the "New Files" part, but let's also try to do something about the "${1}" argument:

/usr/bin/ssh [email protected] \
    /usr/bin/scp /home/pi/"$(printf "%q" "$1")"  \
      '"[email protected]:/Users/home/Documents/New\\ Files/"'

Here's a complete, self contained example of the above, going through localhost twice:

#!/bin/bash
cd ~
mkdir "New Files"
touch "my file"
set -- "my file"  # Assign $1="my file"
/usr/bin/ssh localhost \
      /usr/bin/scp "$(printf "%q" "$1")"  \
        '"localhost:New\\ Files/"'

find "New Files" -type f

The output shows that it did in fact copy a file with spaces over scp over ssh to the dir with spaces:

New Files/my file

Since multilevel escaping is tricky, if you're having any problems, make sure to try this self contained example first without modifications before concluding that it doesn't work.

Upvotes: 1

A---
A---

Reputation: 2593

Try escaping spaces with a backslash:

[email protected]:/Users/home/Documents/New\ Files/

Upvotes: 0

Mikael Kjær
Mikael Kjær

Reputation: 700

Put "" around the path.

$ mkdir 1 1
mkdir: 1: File exists
$ mkdir "1 1"
$ ll
drwxr-xr-x  2 mikael  staff  68 May 21 22:35 1
drwxr-xr-x  2 mikael  staff  68 May 21 22:36 1 1

Upvotes: 0

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