R-在Mac上的路径中运行带有空格的系统调用

Question

I am trying to invoke some system commands on R using system() calls. However, I am having the infamous problem with spaces in the directories.

For example, I am trying to use this directory:

odir <- '/Volumes/Macintosh HD 2/data/cmip5/historical/clt/models'

on this command:

system(paste('ls ', odir,sep=''))

and I receive the following error:

> system(paste('ls ', odir,sep=''))
ls: /Volumes/Macintosh: No such file or directory
ls: 2/data/cmip5/historical/clt/models: No such file or directory
ls: HD: No such file or directory

How can I overcome this?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Most command lines require that you escape spaces with a backslash. And when you make R strings, you need to escape backslashes with a backslash. Try

odir <- '/Volumes/Macintosh\\ HD\\ 2/data/cmip5/historical/clt/models'