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Why this command works:

sudo rm -rf ${server_tomcatHomeDir}temp/*

While the same, but with quoted arg, doesn't work:

sudo rm -rf "${server_tomcatHomeDir}temp/*"

It might be related only to quotes, but why this command works even with quoted args:

sudo cp "$HOME/${artifact}" "${server_tomcatHomeDir}/webapps/${webapp}"

I can't understand. Can anyone clarify?

I just want to use quotes in the first command to prevent globbing and word splitting.

Cyrus
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Victor Dombrovsky
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  • "Doesn't work" -- not so; it works perfectly well at deleting a file named `*` inside the given directory. :) – Charles Duffy Oct 06 '16 at 20:10
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    Put a `/` before `temp`. It won't hurt to have two `/` if `$server_tomcatHomeDir` ends with a `/`, but your code won't work properly if `$server_tomcatHomeDir` does *not* end with `/`. – chepner Oct 06 '16 at 20:16

2 Answers2

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The * here is a pathname expansion (glob) token, that will match any number of characters (including zero) in filename, and it is not expanded when put inside quotes, it is treated literally then.

Do:

sudo rm -rf "${server_tomcatHomeDir}"temp/*

Note that, it is almost always a good idea to quote your variables, especially when dealing with file names to avoid word splitting, and pathname expansion.

heemayl
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2

You have to put the * outside of the quotes, so 

sudo rm -rf "${server_tomcatHomeDir}temp/"*
Gilles Quenot
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