Handling a list of files and directories with spaces in an array

Question

How do I best handle a mix of files and directories in an array. I need to create an array of files and folders and loop through the array and subject each item in the array to the rm command with the -rf options:

#Build array of files to be deleted

FILES=(
"~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign"
"~/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign"
"~/Library/Saved Application State/com.adobe.InDesign.savedstate"
)


#Loop through array deleting each file/directory with the recursive force options

    for i in "${FILES[@]}"

      do

        rm -rf "$i"

      done

    exit

using the shell "debugger" set -vx will show you how your command is being processed. I bet you don't want dbl-quotes around ${FILES[@]}. Good luck. — shellter
– shellter, Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 18:25
@mpapis it executes with no error. I used shellter's approach with debugging...it isn't doing anything funny with parsing the whitespace in the variable names...but it does not delete the files? I feel like i'm losing my mind. — sardean
– sardean, Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 18:56
verified permissions as well, even created a new folder called "test" and a new file "testfile" and it won't delete them either. — sardean
– sardean, Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 18:57
turn off debugging temporarily, add echo in front of rm and edit your post with the output? Loosing your mind, that's not good. Oh hey, I had a crazy spot yesterday, I had imported a shell script with \r\n (DOS) line endings and vim didn't show the ^M that I would expected AND the results were completely mystifying. cat -vet myScript to eliminate this possibility. Good luck. — shellter
– shellter, Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 19:29

Gordon Davisson · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-27 22:35:54Z

2

The problem isn't with the array or spaces, it's with the ~ in the file paths. ~ isn't really a valid part of a path, but the shell will replace replace it with your home directory's path ... unless it's in quotes:

$ echo ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign
/Users/gordon/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign
$ echo "~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign"
~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign

So you can either put the ~ outside the quotes:

FILES=(
~/"Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign"
~/"Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign"
~/"Library/Saved Application State/com.adobe.InDesign.savedstate"
)

Or use $HOME (which does get substituted in double-quotes):

FILES=(
"$HOME/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign"
"$HOME/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign"
"$HOME/Library/Saved Application State/com.adobe.InDesign.savedstate"
)

answered Sep 27, 2012 at 22:35

Gordon Davisson

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1 Comment

sardean Over a year ago

Can't believe I didn't realize that the shell wasn't expanding ~ because it was quoted. Thank you for catching this. Excellent explanation.

mpapis · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-27 20:11:59Z

0

I have used this trick sometimes:

with_expanded_paths()
{
  typeset IFS
  IFS=""
  "$@"
}
with_expanded_paths rm -rf "~/file with spaces"

I wrote it from memory so slight adjustments might be needed.

answered Sep 27, 2012 at 20:11

mpapis

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