.bashrc does not read environment path correctly with spaces

Question

In my Ubuntu 13 I have edited my .bashrc adding an environment path:

export OGRE_ANDROID_ROOT=/home/piperoman/Librerias/Ogre\ Android\ SDK

If I echo the variable, it works fine, but when I try to use it in a makefile, it does not. I have tested with a cd command and this is the result:

$ echo $OGRE_ANDROID_ROOT 
/home/piperoman/Librerias/Ogre Android SDK
$ cd $OGRE_ANDROID_ROOT
bash: cd: /home/piperoman/Librerias/Ogre: No such file or directory

Why does echo work but I cannot use the variable correctly with commands?

Answer 1

Short-answer: Word-splitting.

When you have this

export OGRE_ANDROID_ROOT=/home/piperoman/Librerias/Ogre\ Android\ SDK

The environmental variable contains "/home/piperoman/Librerias/Ogre Android SDK".

If you use it without enclosing in quotes, Bash will split the string into words based on the IFS environment variable – by default tab, space, and newlines.

So

cd $OGRE_ANDROID_ROOT

is equivalent to

cd "/home/piperoman/Librerias/Ogre" "Android" "SDK"

So you should quote it, i.e. "$OGRE_ANDROID_ROOT"