Re: compgen -f failing on directory containing single quote

[Freddy Vulto]

On 091213 08:34, DennisW wrote:
Thanks for testing.  Indeed on bash-4 quoting works for me as well.  Adding
additional backslashes works also on bash-4:

    $ echo $BASH_VERSION
    4.0.35(2)-release
    $ ls a*b  # Make sure there's no `ab' directory
    ls: cannot access a*b: No such file or directory
    $ mkdir a\'b; touch a\'b/c
    $ mkdir ab;   touch ab/d
    $ compgen -f a\'b/
    ab/d                # INcorrect
    $ compgen -f a\\\'b/
    a\'b/c              # correct

I found on bash-3 the workaround is to double(triple?)-escape the quotes:

    $ echo $BASH_VERSION
    $ ls a*b  # Make sure there's no `ab' directory
    ls: cannot access a*b: No such file or directory
    $ mkdir a\'b; touch a\'b/c
    $ mkdir ab;   touch ab/d
    $ compgen -f a\'b/
    ab/d                # INcorrect
    $ compgen -f a\\\'b/
    a'b/d               # INcorrect?
    $ compgen -f a\\\\\'b/
    a\b/d               # INcorrect
    $ compgen -f a\\\\\\\'b/
    a\'b/d              # correct
    $ compgen -f "a\\\\\'b/"

So, these are the workarounds:

    $ ls a\'b/  # For reference, works on both bash-3 & bash-4
    c
    $ compgen -f a\\\'b/   # Workaround for bash-4
    a\'b/c
    $ compgen -f a\\\\\\\'b/   # Workaround for bash-3
    a\'b/c


Regards,

Freddy Vulto
http://fvue.nl