bash add backslash before every space?

Question

if I have text like

/mnt/data/web/web content/page 1/home page.txt

I get my text with the following command that is then piped to another command.

cat somefile.txt | awk '{$1=$2=$3=$4=$5=$6=$7=$8=$9=$10=""; print $0}'

I need to pipe the above command into another command to add the back slashes

How can I add a back slash before every space so I get correct *nix paths

ie.

/mnt/data/web/web\ content/page\ 1/home\ page.txt

the text could theoretically be infinitely long but I always need a backslash before every space. Final script is to be used in freebsd & linux

thanks!

Answer 1

This awk should do:

awk '{gsub(/ /,"\\ ")}8' file
/mnt/data/web/web\ content/page\ 1/home\ page.txt