You could push the ls output through sed to remove the spaces for the for-loop and then again when you are inside the loop. DIRSTOBACKUP=`/bin/ls -d1 /home/user/* | /bin/sed -e 's/ /=/g'` for NAMEDIR in ${DIRSTOBACKUP[@]} do DIR=`echo $NAMEDIR | /bin/sed -e 's/=/ /g'` echo $DIR done It's a bit round-about but it'll get around the spaces. Maarten Broekman -----Original Message----- From: redhat-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:redhat-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Aaron Bliss Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 4:01 PM To: General Red Hat Linux discussion list Subject: Re: scripting problem Steve, The easiest way to work around the space problem is to just use tar to backup the home directory. Aaron Steven Buehler wrote: > I am hoping that someone here can help me with this. I am running a little > script that backs up some directories for me. Below is snippet that gets me > into trouble. > --------------------- > #!/bin/sh > DIRSTOBACKUP=`/bin/ls -d1 /home/user/*` > for NAMEDIR in ${DIRSTOBACKUP[@]} > do > echo $NAMEDIR > done > --------------------- > > The problem is that some of the directories have spaces in the names. When > running the for loop, it will take the new NAMEDIR at the space. So "Red > Hat" would end up listing as 2 directories, "Red" and "Hat". Any way around > this? > > Thanks > Steve > > -- Aaron Bliss Systems Administrator SUNY Brockport (585) 395-2417 -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list