Hi.

I am writing a mac program that among other things, allows a user to create unix links to files. Now I am using the runtime.exec() method to run the ls -s command e.g.

ls -s dir1/fileName dir2/NewfileName

This works but becomes difficult if the path name to the file has a space. e.g.

ls -s dir 1/fileName dir2/NewfileName

I thought of moving the file to a central temporary directory then making the unix link then moving them back but in Java there is no real way of moving a file rather it is copying and the unix command mv is also at the mercy of paths with spaces.

Are there any suggestions to overcome this?

Many thanks

Enclose the name in double quotes?
ls -s "dir 1/fileName" dir2/NewfileName

Many thanks.

Hi,

I was haste in marking as solved.

The idea of enclosing the respective paths in double quotes works when doing directly into the terminal, but from a java program using the
process.exec(command)

I have used single quotes '"' in the program to enclose the path name with the space in double quotes e.g. '"' + pathWithSpace + '"'; the result of which produces the following:



Any further help or suggestions would be most welcome.

Oh, I also tried it in single quotes but with the same result.

To get double quotes in a Java String, use the escape character /, ie
"This is called /"Fred/"" -> This is called "Fred".
Single quotes in Java define a char value, so won't be what you need.