Convert multiple user inputs as mkdir parameter to create multiple folders - Bash script

Question

I want to create multiple folders using the user input. As an example, if the user has written java,python,react the result that i'm looking for is having then the folders java, python and react respectively. But what happens, is that a folder with the name {java,python,react} is created. The comma is not recognized anymore.

## The code
read -p "External projects: " EXTERNAL_PROJECTS 

mkdir -p {$EXTERNAL_PROJECTS}

M. Nejat Aydin · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-04 23:12:25Z

1

It doesn't work because brace expansion is performed before parameter expansion. That is, after the parameter EXTERNAL_PROJECTS is expanded, the resulting string is not rescanned for brace expansion. One way to solve this problem is to use an array:

IFS=',' read -r -p "External projects: " -a EXTERNAL_PROJECTS

mkdir -p "${EXTERNAL_PROJECTS[@]}"

edited Feb 4, 2021 at 23:12

answered Feb 4, 2021 at 21:42

M. Nejat Aydin

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2 Comments

bmalbusca Over a year ago

Thank you @Nejat . In order to solve my problem, I used a for loop to iterate over the array.

M. Nejat Aydin Over a year ago

@bmalbusca Surely, if you have a more complex task for each project, you should use a loop like that; for project in "${EXTERNAL_PROJECTS[@]}"; do ...; done. But no loop is needed for a simple mkdir. By the way, the "${EXTERNAL_PROJECTS[*]}" was wrong in the original answer. Updated now. The correct one is "${EXTERNAL_PROJECTS[@]}"

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