Re: Why does system("mv $x $y") not work when it works at the command line?

The shell will normally treat [xyz] as a character class, and attempt to match filenames on that basis. But if it finds no file matches for the expansion, it will instead pass the original characters as the argument:

% ls
t0  t1
% echo t[012]
t0 t1
% echo t[xy]
t[xy]
%
[download]

It isn't entirely clear to me what your filename is, or what your code is doing, but I suspect the shell behaviour is causing the confusion.

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Re^2: Why does system("mv $x $y") not work when it works at the command line? by Fletch (Bishop) on Feb 03, 2023 at 14:47 UTC
This varies by shell. By default zsh will gripe if it can't find a match (although I think there's options enabled with `setopt` which will make it behave more like POSIX/ksh). For example the first works (because of course there's a file named `foo` . . . who doesn't have one?) but the second errors first and doesn't actually run the `echo` command. `oscar:~ 1064> echo fo[ob] foo oscar:~ 1065> echo fo[xy] zsh: no matches found: fo[xy]` [download] The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^2: Why does system("mv $x $y") not work when it works at the command line?
by Fletch (Bishop) on Feb 03, 2023 at 14:47 UTC

This varies by shell. By default zsh will gripe if it can't find a match (although I think there's options enabled with setopt which will make it behave more like POSIX/ksh). For example the first works (because of course there's a file named foo . . . who doesn't have one?) but the second errors first and doesn't actually run the echo command.

oscar:~  1064> echo fo[ob]
foo
oscar:~  1065> echo fo[xy]
zsh: no matches found: fo[xy]
[download]

The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.

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