How to add path with space in Bash variable

Question

How can I add a path with a space in a Bash variable in .bashrc? I want to store some variables in .bashrc for paths and I encountered a path with a space in it.

I tried to add it between ' ' or use the escape character \, but it didn't help:

games=/run/media/mohamedRadwan/games\ moves    # this doesn't work
games='/run/media/mohamedRadwan/games  moves'  # or this
games="/run/media/mohamedRadwan/games  moves"  # or this

... when I run:

mount $games

... it throws an error indicating that it's only trying to mount /run/media/mohamedRadwan/games.

But when I run echo $games, it shows the full value, /run/media/mohamedRadwan/games moves.

How can I solve this?

Always, always, always quote variable de-references: `echo "$games"` — bishop, May 04 '17 at 15:46
(...except when your variable contains a pattern or regex and is on the right-hand side of a comparison or `=~` in `[[ ]]` ;) ) — Benjamin W., May 04 '17 at 15:49
@BenjaminW. Or you just any case in which you want it to subject to shell rules. — 123, May 04 '17 at 16:09
@bishop the problem with me not echo statement it when write **mount $games** in .bashrc file it make error because it found the path just /run/media/mohamedRadwan/games without moves — Mohamed ِRadwan, May 04 '17 at 21:38

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered May 04 '17 at 22:45

26

mount /dev/sda9 "$games"

As mentioned, always quote variable dereferences. Otherwise, the shell confuses the spaces in the variable's value as spaces separating multiple values.

answered May 04 '17 at 22:45

bishop

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score 5 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '17 at 15:52

When variable contains spaces, variable expansion and then word splitting will result to many arguments, echo command will display all arguments but other program or function may handle arguments another way.

Surrounding variable with double quotes will prevent arguments to be splitted

printf "'%s'\n" $games

printf "'%s'\n" "$games"

How to add path with space in Bash variable

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