command substitution but without breaking output into multiple arguments
-
20-09-2019 - |
Question
Is there a way to do command substitution in BASH shell without breaking output into multiple arguments?
I copy the path of some directory (from the location bar in a GUI file browser) to clipboard and then issue the following command, where the command xsel returns the clipboard content, which is the path of the directory in this case:
cd `xsel`
But some path contain spaces or may even contain some special characters used by BASH.
How can I pass the output of a command as a single argument and without BASH messing with special characters?
Solution
cd "$(xsel)"
seems to handle all special characters (including $ and spaces).
My test string was boo*;cd.*($\: $_
$ mkdir "$(xsel)"
$ ls
boo*;cd.*($\: $_
$ file boo\*\;cd.\*\(\$\\\:\ \$_/
boo*;cd.*($\: $_/: directory
$ cd "$(xsel)"
$ pwd
/tmp/boo*;cd.*($\: $_
OTHER TIPS
Have you tried:
cd "`xsel`"
That should do the job, unless you have dollars($) or back-slashes (\) in your path.
If you aren't doing this programmatically, most terminals in Linux let you paste from the clipboard with a middle-click on your mouse. Of course, you'll still need to put quotes before and after your paste, like @dave suggests.