Questions[cd-command](ubuntu)

I am using bash to get some information from audacious to conky for display (including album art). I get the path to the directory of the music file from audacious, then attempt to cd to that directory to find folder.jpg - if found, prepare for display. Unfortunately can't rely on 'well-formed' path names. None of them have a problem from terminal, but the evaluations that bash does... It chokes on doubled spaces ( ) ' / and probably others, although the current setup seems to handle - ok. Here's the relevant function:

GetArt ()
{
    file_path=`audtool --current-song-tuple-data file-path` # get the path to the song
    file_path=$(eval echo "${file_path}")                   # pre-expand to full path
    cd "${file_path}"
    if [[ ! -e "folder.jpg" ]];                             # if no art work found
    then
        cp ~/Work/vinyl.png /tmp/cover.png              # put in placeholder
    else
        convert "${file_path}""/folder.jpg" -resize 120x120 /tmp/cover.png # ready for showing
    fi
}

Any ideas, or would getting out the wire brush and removing the rust from my 'C' compiler be easier?

I tried with double quotes, single quotes, backticks, and even a construct like:

code=$code \"\$filename\""

but nothing seems to work correctly as yet. Fortunately it fails 'pretty' because it just pops up the "can't find art" substitute pic instead, but sometimes things burp all over stderr until the next song - or album.

I have written a bash script which creates a series of directories and clones a project to selected directories.

For that, I need to cd to each directory (project 1 and project 2), but the script doesn't cd to the second directory nor executes the command.

Instead, it stops after cd and cloning in theproject2 directory. Why doesn't it call the cd_project1 function in the following code?

#!/bin/bash
#Get the current user name 

function my_user_name() {        
current_user=$USER
echo " Current user is $current_user"
}

#Creating useful directories

function create_useful_directories() {  
  if [[ ! -d "$scratch" ]]; then
  echo "creating relevant directory"
  mkdir -p /home/"$current_user"/Downloads/scratch/"$current_user"/project1/project2
  else
     echo "scratch directory already exists"
     :
  fi
}

#Going to project2 and cloning 

function cd_project2() {

  cd /home/"$current_user"/Downloads/scratch/"$current_user"/project1/project2 &&
  git clone https://[email protected]/teamsinspace/documentation-tests.git
  exec bash
}

#Going to project1 directory and cloning 
function cd_project1() {

  cd /home/"$current_user"/Downloads/scratch/"$current_user"/project1/ &&
  git clone https://[email protected]/teamsinspace/documentation-tests.git
  exec bash

}

#Running the functions  
function main() {

  my_user_name
  create_useful_directories
  cd_project2
  cd_project1    
}
main

Terminal output:

~/Downloads$. ./bash_install_script.sh    
Current user is mihi
creating relevant directory
Cloning into 'documentation-tests'...
remote: Counting objects: 125, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (115/115), done.
remote: Total 125 (delta 59), reused 0 (delta 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (125/125), 33.61 KiB | 362.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (59/59), done.
~/Downloads/scratch/mihi/project1/project2$

The thing is that sometimes I type cd by mistake and that take me to the home directory.

e.g. I'm in a directory that have a hidden directory and a visible directory, I quickly press cd+tab and that takes me to the home directory

I try to use the commands cd.. and cd. in the terminal to move from my current folder to a previous one, and it shows me a message that the command doesn't exist...

What could the problem be? I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

I want to enter the following folder in the terminal:

Milano, Torino (Jan)-Compressed

How should I write the command cd to enter this directory?

Spaces and several other special characters like \, *, ), ( and ? cause problems when I try to use them in the command line or scripts, e.g.:

$ cd space dir
bash: cd: space: No such file or directory

$ cat space file
cat: space: No such file or directory
cat: file: No such file or directory

$ cat (
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

$ echo content >\
> ^C

$ ls ?
(  )  *  ?  \

How do I enter file or directory names that contain special characters in the terminal in general?