How to "cd $variable" when the variable tries to add "\" before spaces (path contain spaces)?

Daniell Mesquita

3/1/23, 1:01 AM

My bash script registers its own path so it can return to its own folder after doing a cd somewhere (kinda if it explores a different forest and is able to relocate its house).

And if the path have spaces, I've used sed to add \ before every space.

But when using cd $SCRIPTPATH to this variable:

./newsed.sh: 11: cd: can't cd to /media/daniell/B/bkp/ST500LM012\

Source: newsed.sh:

#!/bin/bash -e

tmp="$( cd -- "$(dirname "$0")" >/dev/null 2>&1 ; pwd -P )"
SCRIPTPATH="$(echo "$tmp" | sed 's/ /\\ /g')"

echo "$SCRIPTPATH"

ls
cd
ls
cd $SCRIPTPATH
ls

echo $SCRIPTPATH produces a normal path (/media/daniell/B/bkp/ST500LM012\ HN-M500MBB\ Dat/0/ok/Pendrive/flshdrive/0.Floflis-DNA/layers/soil) that I can manually copy and cd into it, and works; but when cd'ing directly to the variable (cd $SCRIPTPATH) it crashes right after the \.

0 + 0

bash

environment-variables

cd-command

steeldriver

3/1/23, 1:09 AM

*"And if the path have spaces, I've used sed to add \ before every space."* you can avoid the need to do that altogether by quoting the variable expansion properly ex. `cd "$variable"`

Daniell Mesquita

3/1/23, 1:12 AM

@steeldriver Thank you, the output have improved. But: `./newsed.sh: 11: cd: can't cd to /media/daniell/B/bkp/ST500LM012\ HN-M500MBB\ Dat/0/ok/Pendrive/flshdrive/0.Floflis-DNA/layers/soil` ?

steeldriver

3/1/23, 1:15 AM

Are you still escaping the spaces with backslashes with sed? If so - don't.

Daniell Mesquita

3/1/23, 1:17 AM

@steeldriver Gotcha! Thanks a lot. If you turn your comments into a answer, I'll mark it as correct/best answer.

waltinator

3/1/23, 5:27 AM

Don't bother with escaping spaces, simply quote the variable expansion: `cd "$tmp"`.

Score:0

Ubuntu

vanadium

3/1/23, 3:18 PM

Use quotes around variables to prevent spaces from being treated as delimiters in the shell, i.e.

cd "$SCRIPTPATH"

will work.

0 + 0

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How to "cd $variable" when the variable tries to add "\" before spaces (path contain spaces)?

TH: วิธี "cd $variable" เมื่อตัวแปรพยายามเพิ่ม "\" ก่อนช่องว่าง (เส้นทางมีช่องว่าง)

RO: Cum să „cd $variable” când variabila încearcă să adauge „\” înainte de spații (calea conține spații)?

RU: Как «cd $variable», когда переменная пытается добавить «\» перед пробелами (путь содержит пробелы)?

VI: Làm cách nào để "cd $ biến" khi biến cố thêm "\" trước khoảng trắng (đường dẫn chứa khoảng trắng)?

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