CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashshelltarautomator
oelna
oelna

Reputation: 2436

Automator action shell script to tar multiple files/folders (containing spaces)

I am trying to create an shell script (for use in an Automator action) that creates a .tar archive of multiple files, some of which contain spaces as part of the path or filename. I have read through many questions on SO concerning tar creation, but couldn't piece together a working version.

My understanding is, it should go something like this:

tar -cf ~/Desktop/archive.tar "/path/somefile.txt" "/path2/some folder" "/path3/some other folder"

I have two drafts that look promising to me. I'm guessing, either could work.

From the OS X Finder the files get passed to the shell script either as arguments or to stdin.

Attempt 1 (/bin/bash, pass input as arguments)

files=''
path=''

for f in "$@"
do
    path=`dirname "$f"`
    file=`basename "$f"`

    files=$(printf '%s -C "%s" "%s"' "$files" "$path" "$file")
done

tar -cf ~/Desktop/archive.tar "$files"

Here I tried to just concat the filenames and pass them to tar with the -C flag, which is supposed to change to the provided directory. Probably overcomplicated.

Attempt 2 (/bin/bash, pass input to stdin)

tar -cf ~/Desktop/archive.tar -T -

This is working, but has a significant drawback: the full path gets saved to the archive (including my home dir name). Is there a way to make this only save the basename and discard the path (which is what I was going for with Attempt 1)?

I'm open to go with either solution, if somebody can help me to get it to work.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 755

Answers (1)

Gordon Davisson
Gordon Davisson

Reputation: 126108

Embedding quotes in the files variable doesn't do what you expect (see BashFAQ #50). You need to use an array instead:

files=()
...
    files+=(-C "$path" "$file")
...
tar -cf ~/Desktop/archive.tar "${files[@]}"

This'll execute something like:

tar -cf ~/Desktop/archive.tar -C "path1" "file1" -C "path2" "file2" ...

Upvotes: 2

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