ls with numeric range doesn't work inside bash script

Question

I have a folder with files named as file_1.ext...file_90.ext. I can list a range of them with the following command:

$ ls /home/rasoul/myfolder/         


        

Answer 1

Numeric ranges have to be literal numbers, you can't put variables in there. To do it you need to use eval:

FILES=`eval "ls ${DIR}/file_{$st..$ed}.ext"`

Here's a transcript of my test (I tried it in bash 4.1.5 and 3.2.48).

imac:testdir $ touch file_{1..30}.ext
imac:testdir $ st=6
imac:testdir $ ed=20
imac:testdir $ DIR=.
imac:testdir $ FILES=`eval "ls ${DIR}/file_{$st..$ed}.ext"`
imac:testdir $ echo "$FILES"
./file_10.ext
./file_11.ext
./file_12.ext
./file_13.ext
./file_14.ext
./file_15.ext
./file_16.ext
./file_17.ext
./file_18.ext
./file_19.ext
./file_20.ext
./file_6.ext
./file_7.ext
./file_8.ext
./file_9.ext
imac:testdir $