Bash script to cd to directory with spaces in pathname

Question

I\'m using Bash on macOS X and I\'d like to create a simple executable script file that would change to another directory when it\'s run. However, the path to that director

Answer 1

I found the solution below on this page:

x="test\ me"  
eval cd $x

A combination of \ in a double-quoted text constant and an eval before cd makes it work like a charm!

Answer 2

You can use any of:

cd ~/"My Code"
cd ~/M"y Code"
cd ~/My" Code"

You cannot use:

cd ~"/My Code"

The first works because the shell expands ~/ into $HOME/, and then tacks on My Code without the double quotes. The second fails because there isn't a user called '"' (double quote) for ~" to map to.

Answer 3

use double quotes

go () 
{ 
    cd "$*"
}

Answer 4

A single backslash works for me:

ry4an@ry4an-mini:~$ mkdir "My Code"

ry4an@ry4an-mini:~$ vi todir.sh

ry4an@ry4an-mini:~$ . todir.sh 

ry4an@ry4an-mini:My Code$ cat ../todir.sh 
#!/bin/sh
cd ~/My\ Code

Are you sure the problem isn't that your shell script is changing directory in its subshell, but then you're back in the main shell (and original dir) when done? I avoided that by using . to run the script in the current shell, though most folks would just use an alias for this. The spaces could be a red herring.

Answer 5

After struggling with the same problem, I tried two different solutions that works:

1. Use double quotes ("") with your variables.

Easiest way just double quotes your variables as pointed in previous answer:

cd "$yourPathWithBlankSpace"

2. Make use of eval.

According to this answer Unix command to escape spaces you can strip blank space then make use of eval, like this:

yourPathEscaped=$(printf %q "$yourPathWithBlankSpace")
eval cd $yourPathEscaped

Answer 6

When you double-quote a path, you're stopping the tilde expansion. So there are a few ways to do this:

cd ~/"My Code"
cd ~/'My Code'

The tilde is not quoted here, so tilde expansion will still be run.

cd "$HOME/My Code"

You can expand environment variables inside double-quoted strings; this is basically what the tilde expansion is doing

cd ~/My\ Code

You can also escape special characters (such as space) with a backslash.