How to get this bash script to work if the variable "fileName" contains space?

Question

#!/bin/bash -x

echo "Enter file name: "
read fileName
fileName=`pwd`"/$fileName"
if [ -f $fileName ]; then
    echo "file is present"
fi

Even if I change the value of fileName by adding quotes at starting and end.. The script still doesnt work.

Answer 1

Wrapping it in double-quotes works for me:

#!/bin/bash -x

echo "Enter file name: "
read fileName
fileName=`pwd`"/$fileName"
if [ -f "$fileName" ]; then
        echo "file is present"
fi

I believe this will take care of most special characters, including quotes themselves.

Answer 2

Surround filename with quotes:

if [ -f "$fileName" ]; then

Answer 3

You must use the quotes in the if as well:

if [ -f "$fileName" ]; then

Answer 4

You can quote the filename when you do the -f test. Try this instead

#!/bin/bash -x
echo "Enter file name: "
read fileName
fileName=`pwd`/$fileName
if [ -f "$fileName" ]; then
    echo "file is present"
fi

Answer 5

Change if [ -f $fileName ]; then to if -f "$fileName" ];. Otherwise when the file contains a space the -f operation will be passed more than one argument. If you passed in a file named "this file", the shell will expand it to:

if [ -f this file ]; then

causing the error.

Answer 6

You're prepending the pwd even if the user entered an absolute path. Try this:

case "$fileName" in
    /*) ;; # okay
    *)  fileName=`pwd`/"$fileName"
esac

This will only prepend the pwd if fileName doesn't start with a /.

Also, your if test will only succeed if fileName is a regular file. If you want it to succeed for directories and the like, test with -e instead of -f.