Write ls to array (split by newline)

Question

I want my directory listing output in an array.

readarray x < <( ls -la )
printf "%s" ${x[@]}

So I wrote this, which works but it splits by space and not by newline. I can't find a "newline" parameter at readarray manual, so I'm kind of curious if there is a neat way to solve that request. Please do not suggest to use find (I am restricted to use ls -la).

I use bash 4.3.

The splitting is occurring in the printing, not in the reading I think: see Why does my shell script choke on whitespace or other special characters?, in particular the section Why do I need to write "$foo"? What happens without the quotes? — steeldriver, Aug 11 '16 at 12:48
Possible duplicate of this : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18884992/how-do-i-assign-ls-to-an-array-in-linux-bash — voidspacexyz, Aug 11 '16 at 12:50
@steeldriver Thank you for the suggestion. Putting the second argument of printf into quotes seems to change things. I would accept your answer, if you add it. — Peter, Aug 11 '16 at 12:56
@voidspacexyz No, this is not a duplicate. Please consider that I am restricted to use ls -la. When using the method you've linked then it would look like this: x=($(ls -la)) which results in split words and not split lines. — Peter, Aug 11 '16 at 13:17

Stéphane Chazelas · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-03T06:19:53.543

It does read by line, but you forgot to quote ${x[@]} which meant the split+glob operator was applied to it.

readarray x < <(ls -la)
printf %s "${x[@]}"

Or to remove the last newline character from each of those lines:

readarray -t x < <(ls -la)
printf 'line: %s\n' "${x[@]}"

Or using the split+glob operator:

IFS=$'\n' # split on newline
set -o noglob
x=($(ls -la))

(contrary to readarray -t, that method removes empty lines though (unlikely though not impossible to occur in the output of ls -la))

If you wanted to have the list of files names (including hidden ones) without the other ls -l information, you'd rather use:

shopt -s nullglob dotglob
x=(*)

Contrary to ls -a, it doesn't include . nor .. though. If you really wanted them, you'd do instead:

shopt -s nullglob
x=(.* *)

Write ls to array (split by newline)

1 Answers1