Unix command to escape spaces

linux, shell, unix

Solution

If you are using bash, you can use its builtin printf's %q formatter (type `help printf` in bash):

FILENAME=$(printf %q "$FILENAME")

This will not only quote space, but also all special characters for shell.

Problem

I am new to shell script. Can someone help me with command to escape the space with "\ ". I have a variable FILE_PATH=/path/to my/text file , I want to escape the spaces alone FILE_PATH=/path/to\ my/text\ file I tried with tr -s command but it doesnt help FILE_PATH=`echo FILE_PATH | tr -s " " "\\ "` Can somebody suggest the right command !!

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