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Reading a listing of files in Bash and want to remove spaces from filename

Hi guys,

I'm reading the files in a directory using the script below but the problem is when a file has a space inside of it for example a file named "New_ Extel File.xlsx". The script reads the one file name as three seperate files such as New_ is one file Extel is anotehr file and then File.xlsx is the third file. Is there anyway to get rid of the spaces so that filename is read as one filename instead of 3? Is there a way to do this in Perl if not bash??

#!/bin/bash

cd /tmp/testing2
for i in `ls`; do
  echo ${i//[[:space:]]}
done

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woolmilkporc

You could set the internal field separator to the empty string.
Besides that you should delete "blank" instead of "space" to keep the line feeds (if this is still necessary, that is, you can often work with filenames containing spaces, depending on what you're trying to achieve).

#!/bin/bash
IFS=""
cd /tmp/testing2
for i in `ls`; do
echo ${i//[[:blank:]]}
done

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Tbalz

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woolmilkporc

Actually, what are you going to do with those blurred filenames? Why not use them as they are?
You'll just need a bit quoting.

ls | while read -r FILE
do
echo "$FILE"
# do with "$FILE" whatever you want
done

Tbalz

ASKER

I was able to find the solution on my own.