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Filenames and Pathnames in Shell (bash, dash, ash, ksh, and so on): How to do it Correctly

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This article explains how to correctly handle filenames in Bourne shells (the primary shell of Unix/Linux/POSIX systems), based on the issues discussed in 'Fixing Unix/Linux/Filenames'. Many programs fail to work properly on filenames that include spaces, begin with dash (-), include newlines, and so on, because developers don't know how to do it properly. Many texts, even good ones, get this wrong.

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Unix, Linux, POSIX, filename, file name, filenames, file names, control character, newline, tab, escape, leading dash, leading dashes, leading hyphen, UTF-8, encoding, metacharacter, limits, limitations, fixing, filesystem, newlines in filenames, newline in filename, control characters in filenames, leading hypen, filesystem, file system, space in filename, spaces in filenames, pathname, path name, pathnames, path names

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