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Accepted
Leon Vitanos
Asked: 2013-01-15 06:19:03 +0800 CST

(Nautilus Scripts) $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS; have problems with space

  • 772

So the script is:

#!/bin/bash

for line in $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS; do
   if [[ "$line" = "" || "$line" = " " ]]; then
      exit
   else
      unzip "$line" -d "temp"
   fi
done

It works well and unzips the file. But if the file is named with a space (eg: Leon - 1994.zip) it will not work and the $line will be

1st time: /home/citybong/Downloads/Leon

2nd time: -

3rd time: 1994.zip

Edit: I fount a link http://g-scripts.sourceforge.net/faq.php for the question: "My script can't handle multiple files/files with spaces" but i am kinda newbie to bash scripting and i can't understand their solutions

bash

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    IFS is by default set to space, that's why your string is being divided into spaces. Just set it to the newline with the following code:

    IFS_BAK=$IFS
IFS="
"

for line in $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS; do
    whatever $line
done

IFS=$IFS_BAK
    • 10

  2. You don't need to mess with IFS:

    echo "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | while read filename; do
    unzip "$filename" -d temp
done

    I had a similar problem and it turns out that echo preserves newlines in double quotes, but without quotes changes them to spaces.

    • 5

  3. Using $@ instead of $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS in Nautilus scripts could solve the problem with new line separators (which are used as delimiters in $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS and $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS).

    So, the code will look like:

    #!/bin/bash

for line in "$@"; do
   if [[ "$line" = "" || "$line" = " " ]]; then
      exit
   else
      unzip "$line" -d "temp"
   fi
done

    Also, this is handy when we need just pass selection to another app:

    #!/bin/sh

baobab "$@"
    • 0

  4. Put single quotes around the variable name, like so:

    #!/bin/bash

for line in '$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS'; do
   if [[ "$line" = "" || "$line" = " " ]]; then
      exit
   else
      unzip "$line" -d "temp"
   fi
done
    • -2