Read null-delimited filenames into an array.
Bash Scripts: A null delimiter preserves spaces and embedded newlines in filenames.
set -euo pipefail
mapfile -d '' -t files < <(find files -maxdepth 1 -type f -print0 | sort -z)
printf "%s\n" "${files[@]}"Expected output EXAMPLE
files/a b.txt files/c.txt
Details
Requires Bash 4 or later. Save as snippet.sh and run bash snippet.sh in an empty working directory. A null delimiter preserves spaces and embedded newlines in filenames.
Requires Bash 4.4 or later for mapfile -d.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · GNU bash, version 5.2.21(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) · bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; coreutils 9.4-3ubuntu6.3
Test inputs, results and environment
The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Networking disabled. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.
- Architecture / host kernel
- x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
- Snippet identity / locale
- uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
- Interpreter invocation
bash -euo pipefail -c <published code>- Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3- Code SHA-256
e33ba49607478e9ef40060e0e5e3421abc31e4d90c425f3cda1352ef2a51cd18- Dependencies
- bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; coreutils 9.4-3ubuntu6.3
Test input setup
These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.
mkdir files; touch 'files/a b.txt' files/c.txt
Observed standard output
files/a b.txt files/c.txt
Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.