Dumping Directories Shell Script

Question

I am new to shell scripting

I am trying to dump directories in log file using the following method:

echo -n "Enter Starting Point : "; read SRC
echo $SRC
find $SRC -type d >log.txt

The output of the above code which is supposed to be saved in log.txt, is empty. If I write following code:

echo -n "Enter Starting Point : "; read SRC
echo $SRC
find ~ -type d >log.txt

it works fine. What is wrong with this code?

What does the `echo` command say is in `$SRC`? Is it a directory? — Jonathan Leffler, Mar 01 '15 at 02:47
Have you seen it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3963716/how-to-manually-expand-a-special-variable-ex-tilde-in-bash — Marcin Kolny, Mar 01 '15 at 02:47
Problem Solved Used the First code instead 0f '~' i gave input as '/home' and it worked :) — Muh. Abdullah, Mar 01 '15 at 02:50

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '15 at 02:54

0

I solved My problem by giving input as /home instead of '~' (without quotes)

answered Mar 01 '15 at 02:54

Muh. Abdullah

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1
6

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '15 at 10:02

Use More Quotes™! This script won't work with various inputs. For example, if you want to search a directory called foo bar (with spaces), the find command will instead try to look into both foo and bar, which may not exist.

Also, ~ expansion is not trivial. If you want to pass your home directory to a script it's better to use $HOME.

michael_stackof · Answer 3 · 2015-03-02T01:46:52.637

-1

~ is your home dir, so you dump the your home dir to log.txt, and 1st is your input dir to log.txt .

edited Mar 02 '15 at 01:46

answered Mar 01 '15 at 02:50

michael_stackof

223
3
12

i know what they are used for but the problem is if i give '~' (without quotes) as input it doesn't work – Muh. Abdullah Mar 01 '15 at 02:55
Yeah, as input it is just a char, but it is current dir in sh. – michael_stackof Mar 01 '15 at 03:05
No, `~` is the current user's *home directory*. `$PWD` is the current directory. – l0b0 Mar 01 '15 at 09:57

Dumping Directories Shell Script

3 Answers3