How can one pass an argument to docker run with spaces

Question

This may be specific to the argument parsing done by https://github.com/atmoz/sftp/blob/master/entrypoint#L36

But I am trying to create a directory with spaces:

Some examples I've tried:

docker run -d  atmoz/sftp:alpine-3.7 user:password:::Inbound - Test Dir
...
[entrypoint] Parsing user data: "user:password:::Inbound"
Creating mailbox file: No such file or directory
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Inbound
[entrypoint] Parsing user data: "-"
[entrypoint] ERROR: Invalid username "-", do not match required regex pattern: [A-Za-z0-9._][A-Za-z0-9._-]{0,31}

docker run -d atmoz/sftp:alpine-3.7 user:password:::"Inbound - Test Dir"
...
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Inbound
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/-
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Test
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Dir

docker run -d atmoz/sftp:alpine-3.7 "user:password:::Inbound - Test Dir"
...
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Inbound
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/-
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Test
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Dir

docker run -d atmoz/sftp:alpine-3.7 user:password:::Inbound\ -\ Test\ Dir
...
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Inbound
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/-
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Test
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Dir

 docker run -d atmoz/sftp:alpine-3.7 user:password:::'Inbound - Test Dir'
...
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Inbound
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/-
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Test
[entrypoint] Creating directory: /home/user/Dir

The arguments are just parsed by [entrypoint](https://github.com/atmoz/sftp/blob/master/entrypoint) in the docker container. It get's read into ${args[2]} [here](https://github.com/atmoz/sftp/blob/master/entrypoint#L55) and then splitted around [here](https://github.com/atmoz/sftp/blob/master/entrypoint#L100). It's strange, they are splitted using `IFS=, read` and the whole procedure seems to be very carefull. Try to overwrite docker entrypoint with `bash -x /entrypoint` to see what's going on. `read` has no `-r` flag,you can use it.Try double escaping `'user:password:::Inbound\ -\ Test\ Dir'` — KamilCuk, Oct 30 '18 at 20:48
The linked code is buggy, pure and simple. `for dirPath in ${dirArgs[@]}` on line 101 simply cannot accommodate path names containing whitespace. — chepner, Oct 30 '18 at 21:00

Gordon Davisson · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-30T21:30:55.120

It looks to me like this is a bug in the createUser function, due to lack of double-quotes around various variables containing the directory name. There's no way to work around this by adding escapes, quotes, etc in the argument; you really have to fix the script that's causing the problem.

I haven't tested this, but adding double-quotes appropriately in lines 98-111 like this may do it:

# Make sure dirs exists
if [ -n "$dir" ]; then
    IFS=',' read -a dirArgs <<< "$dir"    # Quotes added here
    for dirPath in "${dirArgs[@]}"; do    # And here
        dirPath="/home/$user/$dirPath"
        if [ ! -d "$dirPath" ]; then
            log "Creating directory: $dirPath"
            mkdir -p "$dirPath"               # And here
            chown -R $uid:users "$dirPath"    # And here
        else
            log "Directory already exists: $dirPath"
        fi
    done
fi

It's possible there are other places in the script that're contributing to the problem, but at the very least the above changes need to be made. Also, the first line I added quotes to only needs them on some versions of bash, but it's best to have them there just in case.

p.s. line 39 should probably also be fixed:

IFS=':' read -a args <<< "$1"

The current version uses $@, which is just weird. The function only ever gets passed one argument, and some versions of bash will misparse that if it's not quoted, so the version I have is a better way to do it.

shellcheck.net points out a bunch of other dubious things, but that's the only other one I see that should matter.

Thanks, I've suggested this as a patch to the authors and credited you. https://github.com/atmoz/sftp/issues/143 — David, Oct 30 '18 at 21:31
@DavidGoate I'd recommend testing it to make sure it solves the problem (& doesn't create any new ones -- I'm pretty sure not, but best to check), and noting the results in your bug report. — Gordon Davisson, Oct 30 '18 at 22:04
While there may be a bug in OP's code, the underlying question is how to include spaces in the run command. As literally everyone else who reads this is looking for an answer *to that question* for their own, different code, this assertion/response is not useful generally. Workarounds are no good for the community, only the OP. — Peter Kionga-Kamau, Apr 02 '22 at 21:47

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 07 '18 at 12:05

1

This was fixed in the latest release based on this thread: https://github.com/atmoz/sftp/issues/143

answered Nov 07 '18 at 12:05

David

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How can one pass an argument to docker run with spaces

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