Expand filepath pattern stored in variable in bash

Question

I have the following value stored in a variable - pattern

$WS/*.asd

In my environment $WS evaluates to valid directory(/home/administrator/dev/workspaces/). There are some .asd files in this directory. I want to expand the pattern variable to all matching .asd files in this directory. However, I've tried the following commands, but neither of them works:

expand "$pattern"
expand: $WS/*.asd: No such file or directory

ls $pattern
ls: cannot access $WS/*.asd: No such file or directory

eval $pattern
/home/administrator/dev/workspaces/a.asd: Permission denied

echo $pattern
$WS/*.asd

I get the pattern as input. Any idea how I can expand the pattern to a list which includes all matching files.

EDIT: Explain the problem in more details

I may get any combination of env-vars and wildcards in any sequence. For example the input may be: /home/$USER/*/$DIR/*.my_extension. The problem is i want to evaluate all env-vars and expand the wildcards.

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-01 08:41:33Z

3

Other than eval you can try this find:

pattern='$WS/*.asd'

find "$WS" -name "${pattern##*/}"

EDIT: Based on your edited question, it seems you will have to use:

eval echo "$pattern"

edited Jul 1, 2015 at 8:41

answered Jun 30, 2015 at 15:52

anubhava

790k67 gold badges603 silver badges671 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

egelev Over a year ago

Sorry, I wasn't explanatory enough. This solution assumes I know how to extract the directory. I may get any sequence of env-vars and wildcards. For example `/home/$USER/*/$DIR/*.my_extension".

anubhava Over a year ago

Hmm in that case eval echo "$pattern"

egelev Over a year ago

Thank you. Really, this works just as I need it to work. Please, edit your answer by putting that into it and I will mark it.

Eugeniu Rosca · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-30 22:00:14Z

1

You can store all the elements following that pattern in an array:

#!/bin/bash
arr=()
shopt -s nullglob # expand the glob pattern to a null sting if no elements caught
arr+=($WS/*.asd)
shopt -u nullglob # undo the 'shopt -s nullglob'

To print the entries:

for entry in "${arr[@]}"; do
    echo "$entry"
done

edited Jun 30, 2015 at 22:00

answered Jun 30, 2015 at 15:54

Eugeniu Rosca

5,37519 silver badges48 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Expand filepath pattern stored in variable in bash

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related