Word splitting within backticks

Question

What is the difference between line #2 and line #4 in the script ("foo bar" (without quotes) folder exists):

FOOBAR="foo bar"
echo `ls -la "$FOOBAR"`
args="-la \"$FOOBAR\""
echo `ls $args`

Output:

total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 tervlad LD\Domain Users 68 15 ноя 11:47 . drwxr-xr-x 7 tervlad LD\Domain Users 238 16 ноя 18:01 ..
ls: "foo: No such file or directory
ls: bar": No such file or directory

How can I get line #4 working properly?

`$FOOBAR` is expanded in the assignment to args. Also quotes are interpreted before `$` expansion, so quotes are literal parts of the expanded string. — 123, Nov 16 '16 at 15:50
[BashFAQ #50](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/050) is directly on-point. — Charles Duffy, Nov 16 '16 at 16:29
...and the backticks have nothing whatsoever to do with it. You'd have **precisely** the same behavior from `ls $args` with no backticks involved. — Charles Duffy, Nov 16 '16 at 16:34

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 16 '16 at 15:57

3

$FOOBAR is expanded in the assignment to args. Also quotes are interpreted before $ expansion, so quotes are literal parts of the expanded string.

Just use an array.

args=( "-la" "$FOOBAR" )
ls "${args[@]}"

answered Nov 16 '16 at 15:57

123

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Word splitting within backticks

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