Echo all the output from a ls command

Question

I have the follow files in my folder:

a.jpg b.jpg c.jpg

And I have the follow script:

#!/bin/bash
echo $1

If I run:

script.sh $(ls)

My output is:

a.jpg

But I want to be:

a.jpg b.jpg c.jpg

So, Why doesn't echo prints all the output from ls?

(1) Are you sure you run script.sh "$(ls)", not script.sh $(ls)? (2) Is this an exercise just to see how Bash behaves? If not then just run ls because what you're doing is unnecessarily complicated. — Kamil Maciorowski, Aug 09 '23 at 14:59
(1) Yes you're right, I forgot the quotes, sorry. (2) Yes, is an exercise, I'm trying to understand how works spaces and new lines in bash, that's confusing for me. — Magenta, Aug 09 '23 at 20:49

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 27 '23 at 14:30

1

In your script, you explicitly ask to echo only the first argument:

echo $1

If you would ask for the second argument

echo $2

you'd get b.jpg as output.

You can get all the files using echo $* or echo "$@".

Another option is that you make sure that the complete output of ls is packed in the first argument. You can do that by adding quotes around it.

script.sh "$(ls)"

edited Aug 27 '23 at 14:30

Chris Davies

answered Aug 11 '23 at 09:22

Ljm Dullaart

1 Answers1