Replacing whitespace, using bash script and sed

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Neil Clayton - 10 Oct 2005 12:08 GMT

Hi All,
I'm writing a script to start an application, which begins by doing
this:

#!/bin/sh
BASEDIR=`dirname "$0"`
BASEDIR=`echo $BASEDIR | sed -e 's/ /\\ /g'`
echo Got $BASEDIR

If I simulate what is going to happen (it's going to be started by a
.app) using the following from the Terminal, I get:

sh /Users/neil/Development/planb/build/dist/mac/PlanB\
Console.app/Contents/MacOS/planbconsole
Got /Users/neil/Development/planb/build/dist/mac/PlanB
Console.app/Contents/MacOS

Note that the Folder 'PlanB Console.app' has not been replaced with
'PlanB\ Console.app'.
Yet if I do the same sed command from the terminal, it works fine.

echo /Users/neil/Development/planb/build/dist/mac/PlanB
Console.app/Contents/MacOS | sed -e 's/ /\\ /g'
/Users/neil/Development/planb/build/dist/mac/PlanB\
Console.app/Contents/MacOS

Anyone got any clues?

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matt neuburg - 10 Oct 2005 20:14 GMT

> Hi All,
> I'm writing a script to start an application, which begins by doing
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
> Anyone got any clues?

Why are you doing this at all? Just quote the pathname variable and let
interpolation happen. m.

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Doc O'Leary - 10 Oct 2005 23:48 GMT

> Anyone got any clues?

Stop doing "printf" debugging. You're using echo twice in the script
but only once in Terminal. What should be important is what is in
BASEDIR, not what it prints as. Regardless, to get what you want, you'd
use:

echo Got "$BASEDIR"

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Mac Forum / Programming / Mac Programming / October 2005

Replacing whitespace, using bash script and sed