How to escape path separators in file path? - bash

Question

I'm writing my first bash script and having trouble assigning a file path to a variable:
$target="/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf"
It seems bash wants to interpret this with the "=" assignment operator resulting in the script throwing an error to the effect "No such file or directory."
Is there an easy way to do this? I've discovered I can assign a full path to a constant like this:
readonly TARGET=/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
but that seems rather cumbersome. How would I perform string ops to modify/manipulate?
I've also discovered I can put full paths in an array like this:
declare -a cfile=('/root/.bashrc' '/etc/fstab')
All well and good, but how do I assign a file path to a variable?
== == == ==
finished! my first bash script - a basic config file manager
#!/bin/bash
# cfmgr.sh - configuration file manager bash script
# options: -get, -put
# '-get' creates SOURCEDIR/USERDIR and copies config files to USERDIR
# '-put' copies files in SOURCEDIR/USERDIR to system-defined locations on server
# purpose: helps with moving LAMP VMs to different hosts, bulk edits of
# of config files in editors like Notepad++, and backing up config files.
readonly SOURCEDIR=/usr/bin/_serverconfig
while [[ $# > 0 ]]
do
arg="$1"
shift
case $arg in
-put)
put=true
;;
-get)
get=true
;;
*)
badarg=true
;;
esac
done
clear
if [ $badarg ]; then
echo "Invalid argument. Use either 'scf.sh -put' or 'scf.sh -get' to put"\
"or get config files."
exit
elif [ $get ]; then
echo "Enter directory name to store files cfmgr will GET from this server:"
elif [ $put ]; then
echo "Enter directory name containing files cfmgr will PUT to this server:"
else
echo "Use either 'scf.sh -put' or 'scf.sh -get' to put or get config files."
exit
fi
read -e -i $SOURCEDIR"/" USERDIR
pattern=" |'"
if [[ $USERDIR =~ $pattern ]]; then
echo "Spaces not allowed. Please try again."
exit
fi
declare -a cfile=('/root/.bashrc' '/etc/fstab' '/etc/hosts' '/etc/networks'\
'/etc/php.ini' '/etc/nsswitch.conf' '/etc/ntp.conf' '/etc/resolv.conf'\
'/etc/sysctl.conf' '/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf' '/etc/selinux/config'\
'/etc/samba/smb.conf' '/etc/samba/smbusers' '/etc/security/limits.conf'\
'/etc/sysconfig/network' '/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0'\
'/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1')
if [ $get ]; then
if [[ -d "$USERDIR" ]]; then
echo $USERDIR "directory already exists. Please try again."
exit
else
mkdir -m 755 $USERDIR
fi
for file in ${cfile[#]}
do
if [ -e $file ]; then
rsync -q $file $USERDIR
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
sleep 0.1
printf "# "$file"\n"
fi
else
printf "not found: "$file"\n"
fi
done
elif [ $put ]; then
if [[ ! -d "$USERDIR" ]]; then
echo $USERDIR "directory does not exist. Please try again."
exit
fi
id=0
cd $USERDIR
for item in *
do
if [[ -f $item ]]; then
cdir[$id]=$item
id=$(($id+1))
fi
done
for file in ${cdir[#]}
do
case $file in
.bashrc)
idx=0
;;
fstab)
idx=1
;;
hosts)
idx=2
;;
networks)
idx=3
;;
php.ini)
idx=4
;;
nsswitch.conf)
idx=5
;;
ntp.conf)
idx=6
;;
resolv.conf)
idx=7
;;
sysctl.conf)
idx=8
;;
httpd.conf)
idx=9
;;
config)
idx=10
;;
smb.conf)
idx=11
;;
smbusers)
idx=12
;;
limits.conf)
idx=13
;;
network)
idx=14
;;
ifcfg-eth0)
idx=15
;;
ifcfg-eth1)
idx=16
;;
*)
printf "not found: "$file"\n"
continue
esac
target=${cfile[$idx]}
if [[ -e $target ]]; then
dtm=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
mv $target $target"."$dtm
fi
source=$USERDIR"/"$file
dos2unix -q $source
rsync -q $source $target
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
sleep 0.1
printf "# "$target"\n"
fi
done
read -p "reboot now? (y|n)" selection
case $selection in
[Yy]*)
`reboot`
;;
*)
exit
;;
esac
fi
exit 0

Answer 1

Instead of
$target="/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf"
Use:
target="/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf"
When bash sees the former, it first substitutes in for "$target". If target was empty, then the line that bash tries to execute, after the variable substitution and quote removal steps, is:
=/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
Since there is no file named "=/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf", bash returns with a "No such file or directory" error.