Handling arguments with spaces in bash

Way to often I get it wrong, so I decided to right this down…

When processing the list of arguments in your bash script, remember that often arguments such as file names contain spaces. The wrong way to go about this is:

#!/bin/bash
for FILE in $*
do
  echo "$FILE"
done

The right way to do it is:

#!/bin/bash
for FILE in "$@"
do
  echo "$FILE"
done

Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide explains the difference in “Internal Variables” chapter.

3 thoughts on “Handling arguments with spaces in bash”

  1. Pingback: lev shuvalov » arguments / filenames with spaces


  2. I think this approach is incorrect. When filename is correctly passed to a program (e.g., space is escaped with \ ), it would appear as one single argument in your script, even if it has spaces.

    Reply

  3. I think this approach is incorrect. When filename is correctly passed to a program (e.g., space is escaped with \ ), it would appear as one single argument in your script, even if it has spaces.

    Oops, I missed the point of your post. You’re right.

    Its just that my usual approach to this problem is as follows:

    while [ -n “$1” ] ; do echo $1 ; shift ; done

    Reply

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