Populate a bash array with list of particular file types in a directory

Question

shopt -s nullglob
array=(*)

Am I right in thinking that the purpose of the first line (shopt -s nullglob) is that in the event that there are unmatched patterns, they aren't added to the array?

I have a directory called unsorted_files. Now, were I use to array=(*) Am I right in assuming that is a wildcard, and would return ANY file? If then I were to specify array=(~/unsorted_files/"*jpg")

Would that then mean, all jpg files within the unsorted_files directory would then be added to the array and populate them as such as elements?

I have put "/*jpg" in between the "" but have been advised that this can cause the code to be ignored

Inian · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-09 10:30:35Z

2

You are right, the presence of " double-quotes prevents the shell globbing to be done. You need to populate the array without it. Also you need to use glob expression as *.jpg to match the jpg image extension files.

shopt -s nullglob
array=(~/unsorted_files/*.jpg)

answered Nov 9, 2017 at 10:30

Inian

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