Re: Space in POSIX path/Terminal shell
Re: Space in POSIX path/Terminal shell
- Subject: Re: Space in POSIX path/Terminal shell
- From: Jon Pugh <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 21:01:08 -0800
At 5:28 AM +0200 4/5/03, Philippe GRUCHET wrote:
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>URIs MUST NOT HAVE SPACES
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>You can try a script that will actually produce a noticeable result:
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>open location "file:///System/Library/CoreServices/Help Viewer.app"
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Yes!
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But this line below also works, and with a space character in the last item:
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open location [no break]
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"file:///Users/philippe/Library/ScriptingAdditions/Jons Commands.osax"
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--> open its dico in Apple's SE.
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Do you confirm?
OK, so the "must not" was a little strong. URI's aren't supposed to have unescaped characters, but plenty of programs will let you get away with them.
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I get the same problem in a Terminal shell window to access to a program ("MathKernel") inside a local application package ("Mathematica 4.2.app").
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The original string path format is:
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":Applications:Maths:Mathematica 4.2.app:Contents:MacOS:MathKernel"
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If I type in the Terminal after [bla bla ~] philippe%
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/Applications/Maths/Mathematica 4.2.app/Contents/MacOS/MathKernel
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Or:
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/Applications/Maths/Mathematica 4.2.app/Contents/MacOS/MathKernel
Unix shells, of which the Terminal uses one, typically bash these days, require a different kind of escaping for spaces and other special characters. This is completely unrelated to URIs.
The simplest solution is to quote the path, with either single or double quotes. Both work, as long as they match. For example, these work:
"/Applications/Maths/Mathematica 4.2.app/Contents/MacOS/MathKernel"
'/Applications/Maths/Mathematica 4.2.app/Contents/MacOS/MathKernel'
You can also place a backslash in front of a single character to escape it. Like so:
/Applications/Maths/Mathematica\ 4.2.app/Contents/MacOS/MathKernel
These are particular to the shell you are using, and passing commands from AppleScript to "do shell script" can cause you to need multiple levels of escaping in order to make it through the various layers. In these cases, experimentation and a clue go a long way. ;)
Hopefully that helps some.
Jon
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