Spaces in bash variable path name

Question

What's the proper way to do this?

$ export SUBLPKG=~/"Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Packages"
$ cd $SUBLPKG
-bash: cd: /Users/$ME/Library/Application: No such file or directory


$ export SUBLPKG=~/"Library/Application\ Support/Sublime\ Text\ 2/Packages"
$echo $SUBLPKG
/Users/$ME/Library/Application\ Support/Sublime\ Text\ 2/Packages
$ cd $SUBLPKG
-bash: cd: /Users/$ME/Library/Application\: No such file or directory

devnull · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-06 03:51:28Z

7

The proper way is to quote the variable while expanding else word splitting would happen on whitespaces:

export SUBLPKG=~/"Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Packages"
cd "$SUBLPKG"

You might also want to refer to Word Splitting in the manual.

Also refer to Word Splitting here.

edited Apr 6, 2014 at 3:51

answered Apr 6, 2014 at 3:40

devnull

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Dr_Zaszuś Over a year ago

Can anyone insert punctuation into this answer? It is unreadable.

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