Keep \ in read variable to show space

Asked Dec 16 '15 at 01:26

Active Dec 16 '15 at 01:33

Viewed 105 times

Trying to keep spaces in the variable for read with the \.

$ echo "Drag folder to be copied to terminal and press ENTER."
$ read FILE
/Users/UserName/Desktop/Folder\ With\ Spaces\ In\ it
$ echo "$FILE"
/Users/UserName/Desktop/Folder With Spaces In it

The \ have been removed. I need them to remain as it will be used later in copy. Example.

$ cp -R $FILE /Volumes/USBName

I have played with different quotation marks and looked around but nothing has worked for me so far. I may have to change the IFS, not sure?

asked Dec 16 '15 at 01:26

Phil

1

`cp -R "$FILE" …`, same as when you used `echo` – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Dec 16 '15 at 01:35
@Gilles I agree that's a dupe of the question that *should* have been asked: but isn't the answer to the question *actually* asked `read -r`? – steeldriver Dec 16 '15 at 01:45
Related: http://unix.stackexchange.com/q/209123/38906 – cuonglm Dec 16 '15 at 01:46
@steeldriver Not with the example given (`cp -R "$FILE"` needs to have a variable with no spurious backslashes — whereas `cp -R $FILE` would require more than backslashes to work reliably), but even if it was, the duplicate also discusses `read -r`. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Dec 16 '15 at 01:57
The `echo` was just to check. – Phil Dec 16 '15 at 03:04

Keep \ in read variable to show space

0 Answers0