(Shell) Create a recursive function which return the basename of files, preserving hirarchy

Question

Currently, I have the following:

#!/bin/sh

pathlink() {
  for file in "$@";
  do
    if [ -d "$file" ];
    then
#      echo "$file"
      pathlink "$file/*"
    else
      echo '/home/buddhilw/dotfiles/'$(basename $file)
#       ln -nfs /home/buddhilw/dotfiles/$(basename $directory) $directory
    fi
  done
}

pathlink \
  /home/buddhilw/.config/* \
  /home/buddhilw/.local/* \
  /home/buddhilw/.bashrc

I get the following error, for every file in upper-directories,

basename: extra operand ‘/home/buddhilw/.local/quicklisp/dists’

Answer 1

change basename $file to basename "${file}". It likely just ran into a filename with a space in it.

i would suspect you'd have an easier time leaving this kinda stuff up to the find utility.

find /some/path -printf '%d %y %Y %f\n'

provides all the info you need as far as i can see. the first column indicating the depth, the 2nd and 3rd indicating the filetype (like d for directories; one follows symlinks one does not), and the 4th column being the file's basename.

you can put that command in a bash script, change the \n to \0, pipe it into a while loop with IFS=" " read -r -d$'' DEPTH TYPEA TYPEB FILENAME and you have a very well rounded filescanner.