I have a list (about 600) of files whose names contain special
characters, such as spaces, &, (. Under bash, they have to be escaped. I
was wondering if there is any command, or even a piece of sed, which can
be used to escape them.

On 2006-08-21, Jerry Fleming wrote:
> I have a list (about 600) of files whose names contain special
> characters, such as spaces, &, (. Under bash, they have to be escaped. I
> was wondering if there is any command, or even a piece of sed, which can
> be used to escape them.

How are you using the names?

The usual method is to quote the file name:

for file in ./*
do
cat "$file"
done

--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
===== My code in this post, if any, assumes the POSIX locale
===== and is released under the GNU General Public Licence

Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
> On 2006-08-21, Jerry Fleming wrote:
>> I have a list (about 600) of files whose names contain special
>> characters, such as spaces, &, (. Under bash, they have to be escaped. I
>> was wondering if there is any command, or even a piece of sed, which can
>> be used to escape them.
>
> How are you using the names?
>
> The usual method is to quote the file name:
>
> for file in ./*
> do
> cat "$file"
> done
>
I am using the names with scp:

scp special_file root@host:~/"special_file"

Here I have to quote the destination special_file twice, one with double
quotes, one with escapes. Only double quotes won't work. I am wondering
how to escape special chars of filenames in a script.

On 2006-08-21, Jerry Fleming wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>> On 2006-08-21, Jerry Fleming wrote:
>>> I have a list (about 600) of files whose names contain special
>>> characters, such as spaces, &, (. Under bash, they have to be escaped. I
>>> was wondering if there is any command, or even a piece of sed, which can
>>> be used to escape them.
>>
>> How are you using the names?
>>
>> The usual method is to quote the file name:
>>
>> for file in ./*
>> do
>> cat "$file"
>> done
>>
> I am using the names with scp:
>
> scp special_file root@host:~/"special_file"
>
> Here I have to quote the destination special_file twice, one with double
> quotes, one with escapes. Only double quotes won't work. I am wondering
> how to escape special chars of filenames in a script.

Use escaped quotes:

scp special_file root@host:~/"\"special file\""

scp special_file root@host:~/"\"$file\""


--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
===== My code in this post, if any, assumes the POSIX locale
===== and is released under the GNU General Public Licence

Jerry Fleming wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
> > On 2006-08-21, Jerry Fleming wrote:
> >> I have a list (about 600) of files whose names contain special
> >> characters, such as spaces, &, (. Under bash, they have to be escaped. I
> >> was wondering if there is any command, or even a piece of sed, which can
> >> be used to escape them.
> >
> > How are you using the names?
> >
> > The usual method is to quote the file name:
> >
> > for file in ./*
> > do
> > cat "$file"
> > done
> >
> I am using the names with scp:
>
> scp special_file root@host:~/"special_file"
>
> Here I have to quote the destination special_file twice, one with double
> quotes, one with escapes. Only double quotes won't work. I am wondering
> how to escape special chars of filenames in a script.

If you dont want to change the destination filename, then use 'dot' is
enough, and no need to add ~/ to specify home directory(default).

scp "$special_file" root@host:.

But if the SRC of scp command isn't a shell variable, then using
single-quotes is safer:

scp 'special_file' root@host:.

you can also use TAB auto-completion, shell can add proper backslashes
for you.

Xicheng

Xicheng Jia wrote:
> Jerry Fleming wrote:
>> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>>> On 2006-08-21, Jerry Fleming wrote:
>>>> I have a list (about 600) of files whose names contain special
>>>> characters, such as spaces, &, (. Under bash, they have to be escaped. I
>>>> was wondering if there is any command, or even a piece of sed, which can
>>>> be used to escape them.
>>> How are you using the names?
>>>
>>> The usual method is to quote the file name:
>>>
>>> for file in ./*
>>> do
>>> cat "$file"
>>> done
>>>
>> I am using the names with scp:
>>
>> scp special_file root@host:~/"special_file"
>>
>> Here I have to quote the destination special_file twice, one with double
>> quotes, one with escapes. Only double quotes won't work. I am wondering
>> how to escape special chars of filenames in a script.
>
> If you dont want to change the destination filename, then use 'dot' is
> enough, and no need to add ~/ to specify home directory(default).
>
> scp "$special_file" root@host:.
>
> But if the SRC of scp command isn't a shell variable, then using
> single-quotes is safer:
>
> scp 'special_file' root@host:.
>
> you can also use TAB auto-completion, shell can add proper backslashes
> for you.
>
> Xicheng
>
Thanks for all your . But I am using scp in a non-interactive
script, so auto-completion is no , and I do want the destination
filename to be different than the source. I have to escape the special
chars with backslashes. The problem is that I don't know where to insert
the backslashes in the filenames and where.

Jerry Fleming wrote:
> Xicheng Jia wrote:
>> Jerry Fleming wrote:
>>> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>>>> On 2006-08-21, Jerry Fleming wrote:
>>>>> I have a list (about 600) of files whose names contain special
>>>>> characters, such as spaces, &, (. Under bash, they have to be
>>>>> escaped. I
>>>>> was wondering if there is any command, or even a piece of sed,
>>>>> which can
>>>>> be used to escape them.
>>>> How are you using the names?
>>>>
>>>> The usual method is to quote the file name:
>>>>
>>>> for file in ./*
>>>> do
>>>> cat "$file"
>>>> done
>>>>
>>> I am using the names with scp:
>>>
>>> scp special_file root@host:~/"special_file"
>>>
>>> Here I have to quote the destination special_file twice, one with double
>>> quotes, one with escapes. Only double quotes won't work. I am wondering
>>> how to escape special chars of filenames in a script.
>>
>> If you dont want to change the destination filename, then use 'dot' is
>> enough, and no need to add ~/ to specify home directory(default).
>>
>> scp "$special_file" root@host:.
>>
>> But if the SRC of scp command isn't a shell variable, then using
>> single-quotes is safer:
>>
>> scp 'special_file' root@host:.
>>
>> you can also use TAB auto-completion, shell can add proper backslashes
>> for you.
>>
>> Xicheng
>>
> Thanks for all your . But I am using scp in a non-interactive
> script, so auto-completion is no , and I do want the destination
> filename to be different than the source. I have to escape the special
> chars with backslashes. The problem is that I don't know where to insert
> the backslashessed in the filenames and where.


sed 's/[^x]/\\&/g'

Jerry Fleming wrote:
> Xicheng Jia wrote:
> > Jerry Fleming wrote:
> >> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
> >>> On 2006-08-21, Jerry Fleming wrote:
> >>>> I have a list (about 600) of files whose names contain special
> >>>> characters, such as spaces, &, (. Under bash, they have to be escaped. I
> >>>> was wondering if there is any command, or even a piece of sed, which can
> >>>> be used to escape them.
> >>> How are you using the names?
> >>>
> >>> The usual method is to quote the file name:
> >>>
> >>> for file in ./*
> >>> do
> >>> cat "$file"
> >>> done
> >>>
> >> I am using the names with scp:
> >>
> >> scp special_file root@host:~/"special_file"
> >>
> >> Here I have to quote the destination special_file twice, one with double
> >> quotes, one with escapes. Only double quotes won't work. I am wondering
> >> how to escape special chars of filenames in a script.
> >
> > If you dont want to change the destination filename, then use 'dot' is
> > enough, and no need to add ~/ to specify home directory(default).
> >
> > scp "$special_file" root@host:.
> >
> > But if the SRC of scp command isn't a shell variable, then using
> > single-quotes is safer:
> >
> > scp 'special_file' root@host:.
> >
> > you can also use TAB auto-completion, shell can add proper backslashes
> > for you.
> >
> > Xicheng
> >
> Thanks for all your . But I am using scp in a non-interactive
> script, so auto-completion is no , and I do want the destination
> filename to be different than the source. I have to escape the special
> chars with backslashes. The problem is that I don't know where to insert
> the backslashes in the filenames and where.

You don't need to insert backslashes, use the way Chris mentioned in
his previous post(some minor modification):

scp 'src_special_name' root@host:"'dest_special_name'"

scp "$src_special_val" root@host:"'$dest_special_val'"

Be careful with the positions of single-quotes(inside) and
double-quotes(outside) in the DESC part.

Good luck,
Xicheng