Bash - cat several files with spaces in their name

Question

Let files="apartment.flat my apartment1.flat"

I want to cat those files using cat $files

The problem is cat searches for apartment.flat, my and apartmrnt1.flat

What do i need to do in order to escape those spaces?

I tried files="apartment.flat 'my apartment1.flat'" And files="apartment.flat my\ apartment1.flat" Nothing works...

Thank!

Read the [BashFAQ entry on Arguments](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/Arguments) (and then follow chepner's suggestion). — Gordon Davisson, May 21 '16 at 15:58

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered May 21 '16 at 15:02

3

You should use an array:

files=(apartment.flat "my apartment1.flat")
cat "${files[@]}"

answered May 21 '16 at 15:02

chepner

score -2 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

-2

you just need to put $files within quotes, should help you

files="apartment.flat my apartment1.flat"

cat "$files"

This worked for me

$ files="apartment.flat my apartment1.flat"
$ echo $files 
apartment.flat my apartment1.flat

$ cat "$files"
hi how are you..

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

answered May 21 '16 at 17:04

Sanjeev

1

Bash will still pass three arguments to `cat`: *apartment.flat*, *my*, and *apartment1.flat* – Rany Albeg Wein May 21 '16 at 17:22

2 Answers2