Re: bash and variable holding directories with spaces

[Michael Marsh <michael.a.marsh@gmail.com>]

On 12/3/05, H.S. <hs.samix@gmail.com> wrote:
> In the script, I am faced with this problem of defining the source
> directories (dirs on the remote machine to be backed up) in a bash
> variable. I want to define a variable DIRS so that it expands to:
> '/cygdrive/c/Documents\ and\ Settings /cygdrive/d/My\ Data'
>
> *with* the quotes, to copy "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings" and
> "/cygdrive/d/My Data" to my local machine. I want to use this variable
> in the rsync command, like so:
> rsync -av remotehost:$DIRS /mnt/backups
>
> I have tried a few ways to define the DIRS variable, but I am able to
> get quotes in the expanded value of the variable.

If I understand the behavior you want correctly, then
DIRS="'/cygdrive/c/Documents\ and\ Settings /cygdrive/d/My\ Data'"
works for me.

This also works for constructions like
DIRS="'$dir1 $dir2'"

--
Michael A. Marsh
http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~mmarsh
http://mamarsh.blogspot.com