How to cd into a directory with blanks?

Question

I have a directory called "foo bar baz blob". How can I

$ cd "foo bar baz blob"

I have tried with quoting (" and ') and with escaping the blanks (\ ). It does not work. Tab-completion does not work either.

I also have to issue commands with filename arguments that contain spaces. How do I do that? Even MidnightCommander (mc) fails in doing this.

EDIT

Over one year later, I finally found the source of my problem. I have overloaded the builtin cd with a function that automatically lists the files of the changed directory:

$ type cd
cd ist eine Funktion.
cd () 
{ 
    if builtin cd $1; then
        ls;
    fi
}

$ cd Interner\ Speicher/
bash: cd: Interner: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden

$ builtin cd Interner\ Speicher/

$ pwd
/run/user/1000/gvfs/mtp:host=%5Busb%3A002%2C018%5D/Interner Speicher

$ ls
Alarms   DCIM      Movies  Notifications  Podcasts   SmsContactsBackup
Android  Download  Music   Pictures   Ringtones

The solution is easy: I just have to put double quotes around the $1:

if builtin cd "$1"; then

Ooof. Thank you.

Answer 1

You have three options:

• Escape the spaces using a backslash character
• Wrap the directory name in double-quotes ("")
• Use TAB completion

Creating the directory:

user@pc:~/testfolder$ ls -l
total 0
user@pc:~/testfolder$ mkdir "foo bar baz blob"
user@pc:~/testfolder$ ls
foo bar baz blob

Method 1:

user@pc:~/testfolder$ cd foo\ bar\ baz\ blob/
user@pc:~/testfolder/foo bar baz blob$ echo "This works"
This works

Method 2:

user@pc:~/testfolder$ cd "foo bar baz blob"/
user@pc:~/testfolder/foo bar baz blob$ echo "This works, too"
This works, too

Method 3:

user@pc:~/testfolder$ cd foo<TAB><ENTER>

Based on your comment on the other answer: for accessing the file named, the escaping needs to be done as follows:

Eric\ Burdon\ -\ Starportrait\ -\ CD\ 1\ \(flac\).cue foo\ bar\ baz\ blob/

However, using TAB completion makes this process easier and avoids you having to escape the spaces manually.

Answer 2

I just created the same folder, in /home/abed, used tab completion, and it worked. See image below. If the folder was created at a different location, you'll have to navigate to that location before you can CD into your folder.

That's also OK. See image

Answer 3

Quote your filename with single quotes.

cd 'foo bar baz literal string'

In the shell, nothing is interpreted inside single quotes so you should be safe from having unusual characters.