On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 3:18 PM, JD <jd1008@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think he meant that the quotes are optional for the echo $i - which is correct.On 06/01/11 12:05, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:The quotes are not optional.
> On Wed, 2011-06-01 at 09:59 -0700, JD wrote:
>> Since a space is Unix's and Linux's chosen field separator,
>> I think having a space in filenames should be avoided. there
>> are many situations where spaces in filenames cause problems.
>> A simple example:
>>
>> for i in *; do
>> [ -f $i ]&& echo $i is a file
>> done
>>
>> you will see that the file with spaces in it's name
>> will not be recognized as a file because each
>> space-separated member of that file name
>> becomes a separate argument
>> when * is expanded by the shell.
>
> No, each filename counts as one argument, even if it has spaces in it.
> The problem arises when you *use* the argument. The above should read:
>
> for i in *; do
> [ -f "$i"]&& echo "$i" is a file
> done
>
> (the quotes are optional in the echo case obviously).
>
> poc
>
Personally I avoid spaces in filenames and usually use a perl one liner to substitute an underscore for spaces when I don't have to keep the original name for someone else.
zsh works without any quotes, the first example works fine for files with spaces in the names with zsh.
Mike
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