Bash loop command through list containing spaces

Question

I have a script with multiple loop commands using the same list. It looks like this:

# List of applications
read -r -d '' Applications << EndOfList
/Applications/App.app
/Applications/App2.app
/Applications/App3.app
/Applications/Another App.app
EndOfList

for file in $Applications
do
    if [ -e "$file" ]; then
        echo ""$file" found"
    fi;
done

exit 1

This seems to work fine except for the fourth application in the list, because there's a space in the application name. If I run the script in debug mode, this is the output:

+ read -r -d '' Applications
+ for file in '$Applications'
+ '[' -e /Applications/App.app ']'
+ for file in '$Applications'
+ '[' -e /Applications/App2.app ']'
+ for file in '$Applications'
+ '[' -e /Applications/App3.app ']'
+ for file in '$Applications'
+ '[' -e /Applications/Another ']'
+ for file in '$Applications'
+ '[' -e App.app ']'
+ exit 1

I've tried escaping with a backslash, quoting it and multiple other ways but I could not get it to work.

Possible duplicate of Loop over directories with whitespace in Bash. Also see Bash loop command through list containing spaces — jww
– jww, Commented Oct 6, 2018 at 8:11

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-23 10:12:16Z

2

You should set IFS as \n while reading and use BASH array rather a simple variable to hold all the entries delimited by newlines:

#!/bin/bash 

IFS=$'\n' read -r -d '' -a Applications <<'EndOfList'
/Applications/App.app
/Applications/App2.app
/Applications/App3.app
/Applications/Another App.app
EndOfList

for file in "${Applications[@]}"
do
    if [[ -e "$file" ]]; then
        echo "$file found"
    fi;
done

PS: If you have BASH 4+ version then use mapfile:

mapfile -t Applications <<'EndOfList'
/Applications/App.app
/Applications/App2.app
/Applications/App3.app
/Applications/Another App.app
EndOfList

answered Mar 23, 2016 at 10:12

anubhava

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1 Comment

Matter Over a year ago

Yes! That is indeed the way to go. Thanks! I've found some more info on this right here

ClaudioM · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-23 08:56:05Z

0

why you should use a list instead to get apps file name directly from directory? If you should add new app in the future, you must update the script.

maybe this could be an idea to get file from dir: I've created a directory Applications, and touched the 4th files in your script:

#!/bin/bash

# List of applications


for file in Applications/*.app
do
        echo "file[$file]"
    if [ -e "$file" ]; then
        echo ""$file" found"
    fi;
done

exit 1

output

[shell] ➤ ./tttttt
file[Applications/Another App.app]
Applications/Another App.app found
file[Applications/App.app]
Applications/App.app found
file[Applications/App2.app]
Applications/App2.app found
file[Applications/App3.app]
Applications/App3.app found

answered Mar 23, 2016 at 8:56

ClaudioM

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1 Comment

Matter Over a year ago

My script is used to check if an application is installed. I specify the applications in the list so it's easy for me to add or remove items from the list. For the looks of it, your script is echoing all applications in the Application directory. The initial script also checks in the /user/Applications directory, but I left that part out since my only problem is the space in the name.

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