Bash script cd doesn't work

Question

Part of my bash script is to access a series of folders:

 #lsit of folders
locations=("/Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314a"
    "/Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314b"
    "/Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314c")

for i in "${locations[@]}"
do (
    #change to directory

    cd "$i"
    #convert tiff to png

However when I received errors:

/Users/luna/Documents/Ethan/scripts/microglia.sh: line 16: cd: /Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314a/: No such file or directory

I've tried to just cd into that folder on terminal and it absolutely worked. How come it just wont work in a shell script?

Here's an idea. You should try it on your terminal. These 2 will work: `cd /Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez`, `cd "/Volumes/Israel Hernandez"`. But this one will not work: `cd "/Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez"`. The backslash inside double quotes in the assignment of the directories into array `locations` is the culprit. — alvits, Nov 03 '16 at 01:38

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 03 '16 at 01:37

1

You don't need the backslash escapes before the spaces since the spaces are already inside a double-quoted string. Your quoting is correct — rejoice! Remove the backslashes inside your "" strings and you should be set.

answered Nov 03 '16 at 01:37

cxw

16,685
2
45
81

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 03 '16 at 01:40

0

The error is clearly:"No Such file or directory!" You can executive the command "cd /Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314a/" on the terminal.
if the error is "No such file or directory!",you should carefully check the path. Don't doubt the script parser itself!Just doubt your code!

answered Nov 03 '16 at 01:40

李德康

15
6

“line 16: cd: /Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314a/" – 李德康 Nov 03 '16 at 01:44
“line 16: cd: /Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314a/” carefully check the error of this path! Copy the erroried path on your terminal. – 李德康 Nov 03 '16 at 01:47

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 03 '16 at 01:44

before you cd command, you should process the escape space in you $i. here is the code, hope it helps.

#lsit of folders
locations=("/Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314a"
    "/Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314b"
    "/Volumes/Israel\ Hernandez/Quantitative\ Data/Microglia\ data/3\ month/Mutant/314c")

for i in "${locations[@]}"
do (

    #reverse esxape chars such space in you code
    i="echo \$\'"$(echo $i|sed -e 's|\\|\\\\|g')"\'"
    i=$(eval "echo $(eval $i)")
    i=$(eval "echo $(eval $i)")

    #change to directory
    cd "$i"
    #convert tiff to png

That looks like it will work (haven't tried it myself). I do want to mention you should [be very careful with `eval` to avoid introducing security holes or other problems.](http://stackoverflow.com/q/17529220/2877364) — cxw, Nov 03 '16 at 02:02

Bash script cd doesn't work

3 Answers3