tar: “Cannot stat” when given arguments as shell variables

Question

I have some directories in a location, that location's absolute path is stored in PROJECT_HOME. Now, I am trying to do the following in a script:

TARGET_LIST="bin lib scripts deployment"
tar -czf project.tar.gz -C "$PROJECT_HOME" "$TARGET_LIST"

but tar gives me the following:

tar: bin lib scripts deployment: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

The tar command works if I substitute the values of TARGET_LIST (tar -czf project.tar.gz -C "$PROJECT_HOME" lib bin scripts deployment), but doesn't when I use the variable.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

By putting $TARGET_LIST between quotes you are defining a single argument with spaces. tar is looking for a single file/folder named 'bin lib scripts deployment'.

Try with

tar -czf project.tar.gz -C $PROJECT_HOME $TARGET_LIST

without the quotes

EDIT If you have spaces in your file or directory names you need to use arrays (as suggested by Ignacio)

Example

TARGET_LIST=(bin lib scripts deployment "a directory with spaces")
tar -czf project.tar.gz -C $PROJECT_HOME "${TARGET_LIST[@]}"

Answer 2

You're having the opposite of the problem described in BASH FAQ entry #50. Fortunately the fix is the same: use an array.