Escaping variable in script

bashterminal

I'm using script.sh in an OS X Mavericks terminal containing only the following:

echo ${1}
ls ${1}

Now, when I call ./script.sh "/Users/me/some\ directoy\ with\ whitespace/", the echo command prints /Users/me/some\ directoy\ with\ whitespace/, but ls still insists on splitting everything up, so the results there are

ls: /Users/me/some\: No such file or directory
ls: directoy\: No such file or directory
ls: with\: No such file or directory
ls: whitespace/: No such file or directory

Notice the \ at the end of the first three error lines. How do I do this correctly?

(I'm aware that using both "" and \ in the input argument leaves the \ in my variable, but I assume I would need those.)

I also tried using ./script.sh /Users/me/some\ directoy\ with\ whitespace/ without the quotes, then making the script

echo ${1}
ls "${1}"

but that made the echo output not contain any \ now, and the ls output looks like this:

ls: "/Users/me/some\: No such file or directory
ls: directoy\: No such file or directory
ls: with\: No such file or directory
ls: whitespace/": No such file or directory

Notice that all it did was add the quotes without seeming to understand them as syntax.

It is somehow related to the IFS (input field separator) since if I make the script

IFS=*
ls ${1}

and run it as ./script.sh /Users/me/some\ directoy\ with\ whitespace/, it correctly shows me the content of the specified directory. I'm not sure why, though.

Best Answer

You don't need the braces. This should work just fine:

echo $1
ls "$1"

You don't want to use backslashes and quotes in the directory name. One or the other should be fine.

Related Solutions

Automator to execute shell script with an input text file, copy it to specific directory

EDIT: Workflow now works with one bug: running the workflow twice results in two copies of the control file being copied

Make a new Automator SERVICE. At the beginning, for "receives selected as input" choose "documents". Add the process "set value of variable" and make a new "destination path" variable (default variable name is "destination path"). Add the process "open finder items" to the beginning to open the control file. Add the process "run applescript" to the workflow the code is the following:

on run {input, parameters}

set LineNumber to (the line in which the path is specified in the control file)
tell application "TextEdit"
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    set thePath to POSIX path of theVariable
    set thePath to text 1 thru -2 of thePath
end tell

return thePath
end run

I don't know why this couldn't have been in the same block, but you need to add a separate AppleScript process. The code is as follows:

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "Finder"
    set theFolder to POSIX path of input & "/DEBIAN"
    try
        make new folder in folder input with properties {name:"DEBIAN"}
    end try
end tell

return theFolder
end run

Add the process "set value of variable" and make a new destination path variable (default name is "destination path 1").
Add the "get value of variable" process and get the value of the variable with the path of the input file ("destination path"). Click on "options" on this process and check "ignore this action's input".
After this, Automator has a process called "copy finder items" and this can be used to copy the input (the output of "get value of variable", which is the input file). This worked for me, hope it works for you as well. Good luck :)

MacOS – Automator: Change to selected directory and run shell script

The problem here is you have the input being passed to stdin. I don't know why that's the default, but you should be able to just change the popup menu in the top right to "as arguments." I did that and added cd "$1" to the top of the script and it worked.

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