Bash script for downloading files with Curl

Question

I\'m trying to knock together a little batch script for downloading files, that takes a URL as its first parameter and a local filename as its second parameter. In testing

Answer 1

curl -# -C - -o "$2" $1

Answer 2

quoting the arguments correctly, rather than transforming them might be a better approach

It's quite normal to expect to have to quote spaces in arguments to shell scripts

e.g.

#!/bin/bash
clear
echo Downloading $1
echo `curl -# -C - -o "${2}" "${1}"`

called like so

./myscript http://www.foo.com "my file"

alternatively, escape the spaces with a '\' as you call them

./myscript http://www.example.com my\ other\ filename\ with\ spaces

Answer 3

if $2 is a text input then try

echo $2 | sed 's: :\\\ :g '

I generally avoid backslashes in sed delimiters are they are quite confusing.

Answer 4

I agree with cms. Quoting the input arguments correctly is much better style - what will you do with the next problem character? The following is much better.

curl -# -C - -o "$2" $1

However, I hate people not answering the asked question, so here's an answer :-)

#!/bin/bash
clear
echo Downloading $1
echo
filename=`echo $2 | sed -e "s/ /\\\ /g"`
echo $filename
echo eval curl -# -C - -o $filename $1