randall r schulz rgpoguasonicnet wednesday 13 february 2008 2041 david c rankin wrote listmates run bash problem simple loop dont understand would like input gurus determine tldp documentation error safe money says situation using example 9122 following link construct simple loop extract directory full zip files httptldporgldpbashbeginnersguidehtmlsect_09_01html sounds like someone needs submit feedback author maintainer document example give created following binbash listls zip list unzip mntnemesiscfghomesambacomputersoftwarefontsextract echo unzipped extract done exit 0 didnt work echo statement showed receiving entire list loop executing instead entry list fiddling got work removing quotes list loop definition like binbash listls zip list unzip mntnemesiscfghomesambacomputersoftwarefontsextract echo unzipped extract done exit 0 understand enough realize quotes affect bash expansion curious whether tldp example error says brain trust thats quotes create single string ones list defined required shell variable array single value ordinary parsing would break output ls occurrence run whitespace characters one loop number words allowed causes one holding entire output ls invocation personally like use array variables bash scripting theyre hand spread across multiple lines _without_ using backslashes putting single value line easily comment certain values commenting line contains within array initialization also get itembyitem quoting expanding array consider array numbers 0 two 3 number numbers echo number done echo invoked four times loop variant get array elements expanded single quoted string number numbers echo number done case echo invoked combine arrays command substitution command notation pipes get pretty fancy generating value lists operate david c rankin jd pe randall schulz tue 05 aug 2008 165034 0800 opensuse bash doesnt tldp bash beginners guide loop example work