macOS cannot 'cd' into iPod filesystem

[phatqao]

i'm attempting to write a script that copies the contents of an iPod to a desktop folder. the problem comes when the cd command returns a "No such file or directory" error after the script attempts to change the working directory to one inside the iPod. the interesting part is that outside of a script, cd'ing into the iPod works just fine - however, when the script attempts it, the directory apparently does not exist. The iPod does appear in the /Volumes directory, and i have manually copied some files from it with no issue.

cd /Volumes
VOLUMES=$(ls)

for vol in $VOLUMES ; do
      if [ -O $vol ] ; then
      		echo $vol > $HOME/Desktop/pod.txt
      		ipod=$(sed -e "s/ /\\\ /g" -e "s/'/\\\'/g" $HOME/Desktop/pod.txt)
      fi
done

mkdir $HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents
cd /Volumes/$ipod/iPod_Control
cp Music/ $HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents

exit 0

can anyone shed light on why my script can't cd into my iPod?

 

[SDub90]

What's the actually volume name for your ipod? Spaces or characters may be breaking the path in the script.

 

[kainjow]

Yes you should always use quotes around the paths when using a variable:

cd "/Volumes/$ipod/iPod_Control"

I can't tell you how many times I run into this with other people's build scripts 😉

 

[phatqao]

What's the actually volume name for your ipod? Spaces or characters may be breaking the path in the script.

that's what i was attempting to avoid with the sed command - it's meant to replace every space with a '\ ' and every apostrophe with a \', thus escaping them. i think i did that part right...?

 

[phatqao]

Yes you should always use quotes around the paths when using a variable:

tried this, and although the filepath in the error message looks exactly like it would were i to type it in myself, the error "no such file or directory" persists.
my output:

Emmett-Butlers-MacBook-Pro:~ emmettbutler$ podrip.sh
/Users/emmettbutler/Documents/Scripts/podrip.sh: line 14: cd: /Volumes/MBUTLER4\'S/iPod_Control: No such file or directory
cp: Music/: No such file or directory

Emmett-Butlers-MacBook-Pro:~ emmettbutler$ cd /Volumes/MBUTLER4\'S/iPod_Control

Emmett-Butlers-MacBook-Pro:iPod_Control emmettbutler$ ls
Music	      iTunes

as you can see, running the script yields the error, but manually cd'ing into the ipod works just fine - what gives?

 

[chown33]

Please post your complete latest code.

After looking at your original code and reading the responses, you're going about this in an unnecessarily complex way, because you don't completely understand shell quoting. I'm pretty sure this can be greatly simplified, but I need to see your latest code.

 

[phatqao]

my latest complete code, which yielded the above errors.

#!/bin/bash

cd /Volumes
VOLUMES=$(ls)

#cycle through mounted volumes and find the one owned by user
for vol in $VOLUMES ; do
      if [ -O $vol ] ; then
      		echo $vol > $HOME/Desktop/pod.txt #save ipod name to file
      		#sed adds backslashes to escape spaces and apostrophes
      		ipod=$(sed -e "s/ /\\\ /g" -e "s/'/\\\'/g" $HOME/Desktop/pod.txt) 
      fi
done

#create directory to store music
mkdir $HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents

#navigate to the ipod music folder
cd "/Volumes/$ipod/iPod_Control"

#copy music to desktop
cp Music/ $HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents

#exit
exit 0

 

[chown33]

Thanks for posting the code.

I may take me a few hours to get to this. That thing called "a real job" takes precedence. If anyone else wants to take a shot, go for it.

I'll be testing with a USB thumb drive with the name "MBUTLER4'S" because I don't have an iPod to use. Please do me a favor by posting the output of this command, when your iPod is connected:

ls -l /Volumes

 

[phatqao]

thanks so much for taking the time to help. listing the Volumes in greater detail shows:

total 24
drwxrwxrwx@ 1 emmettbutler  staff  8192 Jul 27 12:00 MBUTLER4'S
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root          admin     1 Jul 27 11:41 Macintosh HD -> /

 

[lee1210]

In the latest code it looks like you do your escaping AND quote the path. Try pulling out the sed escape stuff and see how it treats you.

As an aside, if you're only looking for things that have iPod_Control subdirectories...
ls -d /Volumes/*/iPod_Control
might treat you right.

-Lee

 

[phatqao]

thanks lee

i have a much simpler program now that does almost everything i need:

#!/bin/bash

ipod=`ls -d /Volumes/*/iPod_Control`
echo $ipod

#create directory to store music
if [ ! -e "$HOME/Documents/iPod_Contents" ] ; then
	mkdir "$HOME/Documents/iPod_Contents"
else
	mkdir "HOME/Documents/iPod_Contents_2"
fi

#navigate to the ipod music folder
cd "$ipod"

#copy music
cp -rv Music/ $HOME/Documents/iPod_Contents

#open files
open $HOME/Documents/iPod_Contents/

#exit
exit 0

but one thing still troubling: the created directory is not visible in finder...my guess is it has something to do with the "@" sign in its permissions listing

drwxr-xr-x@   5 emmettbutler  staff   170 Jul 27 16:32 iPod_Contents

does anyone know what the @ refers to and/or how to make the file visible in finder?

edit: figured it out - it's a finder attribute that makes the file not hidden, but invisible. i'm now using the xattr -d option to remove the attribute
working program:

#!/bin/bash

ipod=`ls -d /Volumes/*/iPod_Control`
echo $ipod

#create directory to store music
if [ ! -e "$HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents" ] ; then
	mkdir "$HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents"
else
	echo "$HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents already exists"
	exit 0
fi

#navigate to the ipod music folder
cd "$ipod"

#copy music to desktop
cp -rv Music/ $HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents

#make F## folders visible
echo "Please enter your password"
for fnum in `ls "$HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents"` ; do
	sudo xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo "$HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents/$fnum"
done

#make iPod_Contents visible
sudo xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo "$HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents"

#open folder
open "$HOME/Desktop/iPod_Contents"

#exit
exit 0

thanks to everyone who helped! (and any more advice is greatly appreciated)

http://blog.nanorails.com/articles/2007/12/12/removing-the-quarantine-attribute-on-your-application

 

[chown33]

Maybe use the -X option to the 'cp' command:
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/cp.1.html

does anyone know what the @ refers to and/or how to make the file visible in finder?

The man page knows:
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/ls.1.html

If the file or directory has extended attributes, the permissions field printed by the -l option is followed by a '@' character. Otherwise, if the file or directory has extended security information (such as an access control list), the permissions field printed by the -l option is followed by a '+' character.​

 

[cqexbesd]

Just a general hint when debugging shell scripts...

sh -x script

It will print out each line before it is run but after variable expansion etc.