John Siracusa
I discovered this change today while playing with a “modern” Linux install, and I’m unreasonably upset about it. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/258679/why-is-ls-suddenly-wrapping-items-with-spaces-in-single-quotes
Why is 'ls' suddenly wrapping items with spaces in single quotes?

I just noticed that on one of my machines (running Debian Sid) whenever I type ls any file name with spaces has single quotes surrounding it. I immediately checked my aliases, only to find them int...

Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
Jan 23, 2023 at 2:37amIvory for iOS
Show threadBrianJan 23, 2023
@siracusa yeah. I don’t like that at all.
Show threadCliff MaierJan 23, 2023
@siracusa is it only when outputting to the terminal? Or when you pipe it, too?
Show threadJohn SiracusaJan 23, 2023
@cmaier I don’t know.
Show threadArno HautalaJan 23, 2023
@siracusa @cmaier piping and scripts look to be “safe”:
$ touch ls\ test
$ ls ls\ test
'ls test'
$ ls ls\ test | cat
ls test
$ ls -N ls\ test
ls test
Show threadTyler MumfordJan 23, 2023

@cmaier @siracusa According to one of the answers, only to terminals.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/258691

Why is 'ls' suddenly wrapping items with spaces in single quotes?

I just noticed that on one of my machines (running Debian Sid) whenever I type ls any file name with spaces has single quotes surrounding it. I immediately checked my aliases, only to find them int...

Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
Show threadCliff MaierJan 23, 2023
@tylermumford @siracusa That’s slightly less annoying, I guess.
Show threadBrentJan 23, 2023
@siracusa It is SO wrong.
Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🌮 🚀 🌗Jan 23, 2023
@siracusa If I ran Linux anywhere that mattered, I'd quit running Linux over that kind of nonsense!
#freebsd
Show threadNate Vack 🍴Jan 23, 2023
@siracusa Unpopular opinion: This change is, on balance, good. “Oops I used the output of ls” is a time-honored rake for new unix users to step on.
Show threadJoel DJan 23, 2023
@njvack @siracusa unpopular opinion: this is why powershell should replace bash
Show threadatomicangelJan 24, 2023

@joeld @njvack @siracusa I second this unpopular opinion, partially because it would make it easier to go cross-platform without needing WSL or anything of that ilk.

But seeing as we are where we are… I’m learning how to parse output from find instead of ls and my life is better for it.

Show threadNate Vack 🍴Jan 24, 2023

@atomicangel @joeld @siracusa it's bonkers how many awful characters are allowed in posix filenames. Quotes? Globbing characters? Newlines? Have at it.

`find -print0 | xargs -0` is the way

Show threadNate Vack 🍴Jan 24, 2023
@joeld @siracusa wait what you can install powershell on linux??
Show threadJoel DJan 24, 2023
@njvack @siracusa https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-on-linux?view=powershell-7.3
Install PowerShell on Linux - PowerShell

Learn about the Linux distributions supported by PowerShell.

Show threadTom NardiJan 23, 2023

@siracusa
Funny, I so infrequently use spaces in file names that I hadn't actually noticed said behavior until reading this post.

Naturally, now that I'm aware of it, it's going to bother me without end...

Show threadJason Petersen (he)Jan 23, 2023

@siracusa this… this is from seven years ago?

Your Synology does this, I can attest

Show threadJohn SiracusaJan 23, 2023
@jason “Modern”
Show threadJason Petersen (he)Jan 23, 2023
@siracusa (though what I’d like is the opposite, better machine output. Would be nice for everything to support -0 like e.g. xargs does)
Show threadyele Jan 23, 2023
@jason @siracusa one should use `find` instead of `ls` for scripting
Show threadJason Petersen (he)Jan 23, 2023
@pingiun @siracusa right, because it has a -0 option
Show threadAllister BanksJan 23, 2023
.@siracusa Reading the coreutils devs explanation (that has to be a tough call to go ahead and implement) it seems… pretty reasonable (to disagree about) since it’s intended not to harm script behavior and wants to make things ‘safer’/more predictable for less savvy users copying and pasting
(I appreciate the heads up, the devtools team people at work install all the gnu versions on macs via homebrew so it could lead to uncertainty and debatable effort on patching aliases)
Show threadAlexJan 23, 2023
@Arubdesu @siracusa yes, this. I was annoyed initially because things changed and I was used to the other way. But the reasoning absolutely makes sense.
Show threadAllister BanksJan 23, 2023
@vnkr I’m more than willing to appreciate and gauge the impact/cost of cognitive switching, but being an open source booster (especially of maintainers) I also try to take the tact that actual action/change is rare and severely difficult and couldn’t have been approached lightly, so they earn just as much empathy since they’re outnumbered 😅😬
Show threadThe SaneJan 23, 2023
@siracusa It is also shocking that standard shells don’t have first class support for retrieving a file list. We’ve only had 5+ decades to figure this out 😩
Show threadKomishJan 23, 2023
@siracusa I actually feel like the old behavior (no quotes) is one of the key reasons I learned to use find over piping the output of ls scripts. So overall, I think this is okay in my book
Show threadflying_walrusJan 23, 2023
@siracusa time to try OpenBSD? A mature, stable, secure OS guided by a strongly opinionated (and usually right) hand
Show threadTelodzrumJan 23, 2023
@siracusa wow, I'd forgotten I was mad about this. It's utterly absurd.
Show threadMorgan DavisJan 23, 2023
@siracusa it doesn’t matter that this article is 7 years old. The fact that somebody decided it was a good idea at all is timelessly stupefying. FreeBSD FTW once again.
Show threadDustø Masterson GoldmanJan 23, 2023
@siracusa now I’m unreasonably upset at 6:30am
Show threadJanne OjaniemiJan 24, 2023
@siracusa I haven’t really used Linux in years, and I’m getting annoyed by this already…