Split string of filenames into an array

Question

I'm trying to get a listing of all the files in a specific directory (/myfiles) and then sftp them to another server. The number of files will vary and so will their names -- they will look like this: Code Translation Table_c_Primary Relationship Type Code Translation Table_e_Transaction Type

I was trying to put all them into an array then do a while loop (based on count) with an sftp put command. However, I can't seem to get this string into an array.

Here is what I have:

export directory=`find -name *Table_\*`
IFS="./"
read -a filearry <<< "${directory}"

During testing only ${filearry[0]} is populated. Output of echo ${filearry[0]} is:

Code Translation Table_c_Primary Relationship Type
Code Translation Table_e_Transaction Type
Code Translation Table_f_Appeal Code
Code Translation Table_g_Campaign Codes
Code Translation Table_h_Designation Code
Code Translation Table_i_Designation Purpose
Code Translation Table_j_Address Types
Code Translation Table_k_Degree of Graduation
Code Translation Table_l_Relationship Type
Code Translation Table_m_Activity Role
Code Translation Table_n_Activity Status Club
Code Translation Table_o_Participation Category
Code Translation Table_p_Activity Status Organization
Code Translation Table_q_Restriciton Code
Code Translation Table_c_Primary Relationship Type

Edit: This needs to be an automated script kicked off by cron. I'm not forced into using sftp, but whatever way I use it has to be secure.

I ended up just simplifying the script to upload all the files in the directory no matter what the name is. I have the output going to a log file which is sent as an text email to a couple people in my office. The format of this email isn't great. All the files are listed on the same line making it hard to read -- Is this fixable?

if [ "$(ls -A $DIR)" ]; 
then 
    printf "=====================================================\n"
    printf " $DIR contains files.\n"
    printf "=====================================================\n"
    sftp [email protected]:/upload <<EOF
    put -r /myfolder/*
    quit
EOF
    printf "=====================================================\n"
    printf "Done transfering files.\n"
    printf "=====================================================\n"
else 
    printf "No files to upload in $DIR"
fi

mailx -s 'Document Feed' [email protected] < /var/log/docfeed.log

Answer 1

You get an array of filenames like this:

filenames=( *Table_* )

---

Assuming you can't just use scp to copy all the files with

scp *Table_* user@host:dir/

you can create a batch script for sftp:

printf 'put "%s"\n' *Table_* | sftp user@host:/dir

If you'd like to rename them on the destination, for example replace all spaces with underscores (using the pattern substitution ${parameter//pattern/string}):

for name in *Table_*; do
    printf 'put "%s" "%s"\n' "$name" "${name// /_}"
done | sftp user@host:/dir

---

Another obvious solution is to create an archive of the relevant file and the transfer this archive to the other host:

tar -cf archive.tar *Table_*

echo 'put archive.tar' | sftp user@host:/dir

Answer 2

I think I'm splitting hair here but fwiw, to accomplish what I originally wanted to do I can use:

 shopt -s nullglob
 documentarray=(*Translation*)
 for i in "${documentarray[@]}"
 do
 #sftp stuff here

 done