linux bash: cd to directory with space

Question

If having a directory name as "my dir". I can get to the directory use this,

~: cd my\ dir

or

~: cd "dy dir" 

But I found if I do this:

~: export my_dir=my\ dir

or

~: export my_dir="my dir"

then

~: cd $my_dir

it does not work, cd always get its parameter as "my " and report error.

Anyone aware how to fix this?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The shell will split variables up on whitespace when used outside of quotation marks. Do cd "$my_dir" instead.

Answer 2

alias cdmydir="cd my\ dir"

You won't be able to use this for any other function, like specifying paths, but it'll work for this immediate use.

I tried export my_dir=my\\\ dir and export my_dir="\"my dir\"", so that the environment variable would be my\ dir and "my dir", respectively. But bash must do different parsing for environment variables compared to the regular command line: I got errors "No such file or directory" errors for my\ and "my.

Answer 3

c () { cd "$1 $2 $3 $4"; }

In whatever bash file you think should be used. Tabbing adds the / escaping the space, so does dragging it from the GUI.