On Monday 14 October 2002 21:55, Paul Kraus wrote: > GOT IT!!! > > Cp "$variable"*
Sort of. That obviously works. Since the asterisks and the variable are expanded seperately in this case, it works. However, it may not work in every case depending on what you are trying to accomplished. If you want to copy everything, including all sub-directories, you can forget the asterisk and simply use the -R option to cp. Regards, jimmo > > Thanks again! > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of James Mohr > Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 3:58 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Variable Quoting > > > > On Monday 14 October 2002 20:38, Paul Kraus wrote: > <SNIP> > > > Now with this change > > string="My Documents/*" > > cp "$string" /tmp > > > > cp: cannot stat 'My Documents/*':no such file or directory > > Sure because the token that is passed to the cp command includes the > asterisk, > it doesn't know that it should expand the asterisk (*) to the file > names, so > it looks for a file with the literal name '*'. > > > So then I for kicks I tried. > > > > cp "My Documents/*" /tmp > > Produces the same error. > > Same thing. > > > So just to make sure that it was not a typo in path I tried. cp My\ > > Documents/* /tmp > > > > And this worked. > > Makes sense as the shell is now expanding the asterisks to the names of > the > files. You don't see this because it is expanded internally. Create a > shell > script that just does this copy and put "set -x" on the first list. This > > should show you the expanded form before it is passed to cp. > > > So is the problem with cp? Since the same syntax seems to work with > > all other apps? Is cp not capable of taking a double quoted path with > > spaces? > > No, it is the fact that cp does not know to expand the asterisk. Plus > you are > passing different things to the cp depending on what sets of quotes you > use. > > > Redhat 7.3 in case it helps. > > Actually the Linux distriubtion is pretty irrelevant in this case. In > fact the > behavior would be the same on most any *NIX system, as it is standard > shell > stuff. > > See if these explain more of the details for you: > > http://www.linux-tutorial.info/cgi-bin/display.pl?20&0&0&0&3 > http://www.linux-tutorial.info/cgi-bin/display.pl?22&0&0&0&3 > > regards, > > jimmo -- --------------------------------------- "Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." -- John Wooden --------------------------------------- Be sure to visit the Linux Tutorial: http://www.linux-tutorial.info --------------------------------------- NOTE: All messages sent to me in response to my posts to newsgroups or forums are subject to reposting. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
