ctmconv, zenity and filenames with spaces

Question

I'm making a little conversion script in Zenity, but have noticed that ctmconv won't allow spaces in a filename. Can I get rid of spaces in the input filename?

#!/bin/bash
cd ~/Desktop
file="$(zenity --title "3D Converter:         Select a File to convert" --file-selection --file-filter=""*.ctm" "*.ply" "*.stl" "*.3ds" "*.dae" "*.obj" "*.lwo" "*.off"")"
filetype=$(zenity --list --title="Select File Type" --text="file types\ selection" --column="Select" --column="File Type" --radiolist false 3ds false ctm false dae false lwo false obj false off false ply true stl false wrl)
szSavePath="$(zenity --file-selection --filename="${file%%."${file##*.}"}"."$filetype" --save --confirm-overwrite)"
# szSavePath="$(zenity --file-selection --filename="out"."$filetype" --save --confirm-overwrite)"
ctmconv "$file" $szSavePath
zenity --info --text "Conversion Completed"

The above script gets the file to be converted, then asks for the filetype to convert to. It then replaces the original filetype with the new one and passes the result to ctmconv. Probably a messy way to do it, but hey ho! I'm new to this.

ctmconv just falls over if "$file" is "model rail", but is fine if it is just "model"

Answer 1

For some very odd reason , ctmconv doesn't recognize quoted variables as one entity if their contents contain spaces. (Which may also be a worthwhile to report this behavior as a bug to the developers).

I suggest you use any text-editing tool , such as sed or awk to insert backslash before space. For instance, something like this.

$ echo "with space" | sed 's/\ /\\ /g'                                         
with\ space

In case of your variable, something like this will do:

$ file="with space"
$ file="$( echo $file | sed 's/\ /\\ /g'  )"
$ echo "$file"
with\ space

Answer 2

I cannot get the hang of commenting. I can't post the code as it's too long, I can't upload it. I can't eveng get a new line on it, so I have to answer my own question

#!/bin/bash

cd ~/Desktop
file="$(zenity --title "3D Converter:         Select a File to convert" --file-selection --file-filter=""*.ctm" "*.ply" "*.stl" "*.3ds" "*.dae" "*.obj" "*.lwo" "*.off"")"
file="$( echo $file | sed 's/\ /\\ /g'  )"
filetype=$(zenity --list --title="Select File Type" --text="file types\ selection" --column="Select" --column="File Type" --radiolist false 3ds false ctm false dae false lwo false obj false off false ply true stl false wrl)
szSavePath="$(zenity --file-selection --filename="${file%%."${file##*.}"}" --save --confirm-overwrite)"
echo ctmconv $file $szSavePath."$filetype"
ctmconv $file $szSavePath."$filetype"
zenity --info --text "Conversion Completed"`

I just put echo ctmconv etc. so you don't need ctmconv to see the output if you execute in a terminal..

ctmconv /home/alistair/Desktop/plastic/Buffers/Model\ Rail.stl /home/alistair/Desktop/Model\ Rail.3ds
Error: Invalid argument: /home/alistair/Desktop/Model\`

ctmconv falls down trying to output the file: the input is accepted.

But if I copy, paste and execute the "echo"ed line, it works perfectly....

What if I could just remove the spaces from the szSaveFile. Could that be done?