Passing quoted string arguments to a bash script -

i have not been able find solution seemingly simple problem here or anywhere else. want paths of files in nested directory, add quotes around them, , loop through them in bash script. directory names , files can have white spaces in them. far nothing tried works properly. quoted path strings broken @ spaces.

test.sh

for var in "$@"     echo "$var" done 

i tried reading file 1 path per line, both single , double quotes:

find "nested directory spaces" -type f | sed -e 's/^/"/g' -e 's/$/"/g' | tr '\n' '\n' > list.txt # double quotes ./test.sh `cat list.txt`  find "nested directory spaces" -type f | sed -e 's/^/'\''/g' -e 's/$/'\''/g' | tr '\n' ' ' > list.txt # single quotes ./test.sh `cat list.txt` 

and command substitution space between quoted paths, single , double quotes:

./test.sh `find "nested directory spaces" -type f | sed -e 's/^/"/g' -e 's/$/"/g' | tr '\n' ' '` # double quotes  ./test.sh `find "nested directory spaces" -type f | sed -e 's/^/'\''/g' -e 's/$/'\''/g' | tr '\n' ' '` # single quotes 

simply echoing quoted path command line gives desired result. missing in script can resolve arguments complete strings?

do instead:

find "nested directory spaces" -type f -exec ./test.sh {} + 

this call test.sh multiple arguments, without splitting spaces in filenames.

if version of find doesn't support +, can use \; instead, call ./test.sh once each argument.

for example, given script:

#!/bin/sh echo start i;     echo file: "$i" done 

the difference between + , \;:

$ find a\ b.txt date.txt -exec ./test.sh {} + start file: b.txt file: date.txt $ find a\ b.txt date.txt -exec ./test.sh {} \; start file: b.txt start file: date.txt