On Thursday 08 March 2007 22:11, Bruno Wolff III wrote: > On Thu, Mar 08, 2007 at 22:01:24 +0100, > > Nigel Henry <cave.dnb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Thanks Todd, and you Bruno. Now I've learned a bit about using quotes, > > but why does that apply to the directory you are accessing using du, but > > doesn't apply to the subdirectories within that directory? > > It is a feature of the command line. Internally the names don't need > to be quoted. (Though some commands will run other commands using a shell > and shell expansion and quoting will apply to those commands.) > > If you want to read more about shell commands, try man bash. (There are > other shells, but bash is the normal default.) Thanks Bruno. I'll have another go in man bash, and see if I can learn a bit more. Many thanks for the reply. Nigel.