how to replace spaces in a string with '\ ' in bash

Question

I'm writing a bash script that prints the contents of a file called website (using cat) that is inside a folder with a space in it's name, for example folder 1. but I can't make bash get the path correct, it always uses only the first word in the folder name, so cat folder/website instead of cat folder 1/website. so I want to replace the space with \ . I tried using sed and tr, but they didn't work.

here is my code:

function get-website() { DIR="$1" website="$(cat "main/apps/$DIR/website")" } 

most of what I tried is here: Replace character X with character Y in a string with bash

thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You have to pass the function directory name quoted.

$ type foo foo is a function foo () { dir="${1}"; cat "${dir}/test" } $ foo "folder 1" foobar $ foo folder 1 cat: folder/test: No such file or directory