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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-13T05:04:42+00:00

I wrote a small script that copies, then removes and then creates a symbolic

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I wrote a small script that copies, then removes and then creates a symbolic link from where the file was moved to it’s new location.
To easly do it for multiple times I used variables, but when a file has spaces in it, I’m getting some errors, even though I’m using ‘\’ in front of every space.
Here is my code:

dest=~/Videos-win/file\ name\ with\ spaces
src=~/Downloads/file\ name\ with\ spaces

echo $dest ;
cp -r $src $dest ;
rm -R $src ;
ln -s $dest $src ;
echo 'done'

I also tried with ‘\\’ (adding ‘\ ‘ to the var). also got me some errors.

Anyone knows what am I doing wrong? tnx

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Try this :

    dest="$HOME/Videos-win/file name with spaces"
src="$HOME/Downloads/file name with spaces"

echo "$dest"
cp -r "$src" "$dest"
rm -R "$src"
ln -s "$dest" "$src"
echo 'done'

    Please, USE MORE QUOTES! They are vital. Also, learn the difference between ' and " and `. See http://mywiki.wooledge.org/Quotes and http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/words

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