done
     }
 
-    tagdir_parsing__for_tagdir '_copy_dirtree' $@
+    tagdir_parsing__for_tagdir '_copy_dirtree' "$@"
     PATHS_WRITTEN=$(echo "${PATHS_WRITTEN}" | grep -v -E '^ *$')
 
     ## for all paths written into user home directories, chown to respective users
     local PATH
     for PATH in ${PATHS_WRITTEN}; do
-        if [ $(echo "${PATH}" | grep -E '^/home/' | wc -l) -gt 0 ]; then
+        local N_MATCHES
+        N_MATCHES=$(echo "${PATH}" | grep -cE '^/home/')
+        if [ "${N_MATCHES}" -gt 0 ]; then
             local USERNAME
             USERNAME=$(echo "${PATH}" | sed -E 's/^\/home\///' | sed -E 's/\/.*//')
             chown -R "${USERNAME}:${USERNAME}" "${PATH}"