This checks if a file exists:
#!/bin/bash
FILE=$1
if [ -f $FILE ]; then
echo "File $FILE exists."
else
echo "File $FILE does not exist."
fi
How do I only check if the file does not exist?
The test command (written as [ here) has a "not" logical operator, ! (exclamation mark):
if [ ! -f /tmp/foo.txt ]; then
echo "File not found!"
fi
Bash File Testing
-b filename - Block special file
-c filename - Special character file
-d directoryname - Check for directory Existence
-e filename - Check for file existence, regardless of type (node, directory, socket, etc.)
-f filename - Check for regular file existence not a directory
-G filename - Check if file exists and is owned by effective group ID
-G filename set-group-id - True if file exists and is set-group-id
-k filename - Sticky bit
-L filename - Symbolic link
-O filename - True if file exists and is owned by the effective user id
-r filename - Check if file is a readable
-S filename - Check if file is socket
-s filename - Check if file is nonzero size
-u filename - Check if file set-user-id bit is set
-w filename - Check if file is writable
-x filename - Check if file is executable
How to use:
#!/bin/bash
file=./file
if [ -e "$file" ]; then
echo "File exists"
else
echo "File does not exist"
fi
A test expression can be negated by using the ! operator
#!/bin/bash
file=./file
if [ ! -e "$file" ]; then
echo "File does not exist"
else
echo "File exists"
fi
Negate the expression inside test (for which [ is an alias) using !:
#!/bin/bash
FILE=$1
if [ ! -f "$FILE" ]
then
echo "File $FILE does not exist"
fi
The relevant man page is man test or, equivalently, man [ -- or help test or help [ for the built-in bash command.
Alternatively (less commonly used) you can negate the result of test using:
if ! [ -f "$FILE" ]
then
echo "File $FILE does not exist"
fi
That syntax is described in "man 1 bash" in sections "Pipelines" and "Compound Commands".
[[ -f $FILE ]] || printf '%s does not exist!\n' "$FILE"
Also, it's possible that the file is a broken symbolic link, or a non-regular file, like e.g. a socket, device or fifo. For example, to add a check for broken symlinks:
if [[ ! -f $FILE ]]; then
if [[ -L $FILE ]]; then
printf '%s is a broken symlink!\n' "$FILE"
else
printf '%s does not exist!\n' "$FILE"
fi
fi
It's worth mentioning that if you need to execute a single command you can abbreviate
if [ ! -f "$file" ]; then
echo "$file"
fi
to
test -f "$file" || echo "$file"
or
[ -f "$file" ] || echo "$file"
I prefer to do the following one-liner, in POSIX shell compatible format:
$ [ -f "/$DIR/$FILE" ] || echo "$FILE NOT FOUND"
$ [ -f "/$DIR/$FILE" ] && echo "$FILE FOUND"
For a couple of commands, like I would do in a script:
$ [ -f "/$DIR/$FILE" ] || { echo "$FILE NOT FOUND" ; exit 1 ;}
Once I started doing this, I rarely use the fully typed syntax anymore!!
To test file existence, the parameter can be any one of the following:
-e: Returns true if file exists (regular file, directory, or symlink)
-f: Returns true if file exists and is a regular file
-d: Returns true if file exists and is a directory
-h: Returns true if file exists and is a symlink
All the tests below apply to regular files, directories, and symlinks:
-r: Returns true if file exists and is readable
-w: Returns true if file exists and is writable
-x: Returns true if file exists and is executable
-s: Returns true if file exists and has a size > 0
Example script:
#!/bin/bash
FILE=$1
if [ -f "$FILE" ]; then
echo "File $FILE exists"
else
echo "File $FILE does not exist"
fi
You can do this:
[[ ! -f "$FILE" ]] && echo "File doesn't exist"
or
if [[ ! -f "$FILE" ]]; then
echo "File doesn't exist"
fi
If you want to check for file and folder both, then use -e option instead of -f. -e returns true for regular files, directories, socket, character special files, block special files etc.
You should be careful about running test for an unquoted variable, because it might produce unexpected results:
$ [ -f ]
$ echo $?
0
$ [ -f "" ]
$ echo $?
1
The recommendation is usually to have the tested variable surrounded by double quotation marks:
#!/bin/sh
FILE=$1
if [ ! -f "$FILE" ]
then
echo "File $FILE does not exist."
fi
In
[ -f "$file" ]
the [ command does a stat() (not lstat()) system call on the path stored in $file and returns true if that system call succeeds and the type of the file as returned by stat() is "regular".
So if [ -f "$file" ] returns true, you can tell the file does exist and is a regular file or a symlink eventually resolving to a regular file (or at least it was at the time of the stat()).
However if it returns false (or if [ ! -f "$file" ] or ! [ -f "$file" ] return true), there are many different possibilities:
the file doesn't exist
the file exists but is not a regular file (could be a device, fifo, directory, socket...)
the file exists but you don't have search permission to the parent directory
the file exists but that path to access it is too long
the file is a symlink to a regular file, but you don't have search permission to some of the directories involved in the resolution of the symlink.
... any other reason why the stat() system call may fail.
In short, it should be:
if [ -f "$file" ]; then
printf '"%s" is a path to a regular file or symlink to regular file\n' "$file"
elif [ -e "$file" ]; then
printf '"%s" exists but is not a regular file\n' "$file"
elif [ -L "$file" ]; then
printf '"%s" exists, is a symlink but I cannot tell if it eventually resolves to an actual file, regular or not\n' "$file"
else
printf 'I cannot tell if "%s" exists, let alone whether it is a regular file or not\n' "$file"
fi
To know for sure that the file doesn't exist, we'd need the stat() system call to return with an error code of ENOENT (ENOTDIR tells us one of the path components is not a directory is another case where we can tell the file doesn't exist by that path). Unfortunately the [ command doesn't let us know that. It will return false whether the error code is ENOENT, EACCESS (permission denied), ENAMETOOLONG or anything else.
The [ -e "$file" ] test can also be done with ls -Ld -- "$file" > /dev/null. In that case, ls will tell you why the stat() failed, though the information can't easily be used programmatically:
$ file=/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
$ if [ ! -e "$file" ]; then echo does not exist; fi
does not exist
$ if ! ls -Ld -- "$file" > /dev/null; then echo stat failed; fi
ls: cannot access '/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root': Permission denied
stat failed
At least ls tells me it's not because the file doesn't exist that it fails. It's because it can't tell whether the file exists or not. The [ command just ignored the problem.
With the zsh shell, you can query the error code with the $ERRNO special variable after the failing [ command, and decode that number using the $errnos special array in the zsh/system module:
zmodload zsh/system
ERRNO=0
if [ ! -f "$file" ]; then
err=$ERRNO
case $errnos[err] in
("") echo exists, not a regular file;;
(ENOENT|ENOTDIR)
if [ -L "$file" ]; then
echo broken link
else
echo does not exist
fi;;
(*) syserror -p "can't tell: " "$err"
esac
fi
(beware the $errnos support was broken with some versions of zsh when built with recent versions of gcc).
There are three distinct ways to do this:
Negate the exit status with bash (no other answer has said this):
if ! [ -e "$file" ]; then
echo "file does not exist"
fi
Or:
! [ -e "$file" ] && echo "file does not exist"
Negate the test inside the test command [ (that is the way most answers before have presented):
if [ ! -e "$file" ]; then
echo "file does not exist"
fi
Or:
[ ! -e "$file" ] && echo "file does not exist"
Act on the result of the test being negative (|| instead of &&):
Only:
[ -e "$file" ] || echo "file does not exist"
This looks silly (IMO), don't use it unless your code has to be portable to the Bourne shell (like the /bin/sh of Solaris 10 or earlier) that lacked the pipeline negation operator (!):
if [ -e "$file" ]; then
:
else
echo "file does not exist"
fi
envfile=.env
if [ ! -f "$envfile" ]
then
echo "$envfile does not exist"
exit 1
fi
To reverse a test, use "!".
That is equivalent to the "not" logical operator in other languages. Try this:
if [ ! -f /tmp/foo.txt ];
then
echo "File not found!"
fi
Or written in a slightly different way:
if [ ! -f /tmp/foo.txt ]
then echo "File not found!"
fi
Or you could use:
if ! [ -f /tmp/foo.txt ]
then echo "File not found!"
fi
Or, presing all together:
if ! [ -f /tmp/foo.txt ]; then echo "File not found!"; fi
Which may be written (using then "and" operator: &&) as:
[ ! -f /tmp/foo.txt ] && echo "File not found!"
Which looks shorter like this:
[ -f /tmp/foo.txt ] || echo "File not found!"
The test thing may count too. It worked for me (based on Bash Shell: Check File Exists or Not):
test -e FILENAME && echo "File exists" || echo "File doesn't exist"
This code also working .
#!/bin/bash
FILE=$1
if [ -f $FILE ]; then
echo "File '$FILE' Exists"
else
echo "The File '$FILE' Does Not Exist"
fi
The simplest way
FILE=$1
[ ! -e "${FILE}" ] && echo "does not exist" || echo "exists"
This shell script also works for finding a file in a directory:
echo "enter file"
read -r a
if [ -s /home/trainee02/"$a" ]
then
echo "yes. file is there."
else
echo "sorry. file is not there."
fi
sometimes it may be handy to use && and || operators.
Like in (if you have command "test"):
test -b $FILE && echo File not there!
or
test -b $FILE || echo File there!
If you want to use test instead of [], then you can use ! to get the negation:
if ! test "$FILE"; then
echo "does not exist"
fi
You can also group multiple commands in the one liner
[ -f "filename" ] || ( echo test1 && echo test2 && echo test3 )
or
[ -f "filename" ] || { echo test1 && echo test2 && echo test3 ;}
If filename doesn't exit, the output will be
test1
test2
test3
Note: ( ... ) runs in a subshell, { ... ;} runs in the same shell.
im working in linux bash, and i have a problem, im doing a exercise what say this:
"will ask for three strings by keyboard and will test
whether three valid texts have been entered or whether
these strings correspond to directory names.
If so, list what is inside each one
of them and show it. If no three have been entered
strings or any of the three is not a directory,
display a warning indicating the error." okey, in my code, i ask the strings and then, as you can see in each if, I am comparing if they correspond to a directory name or not. However, the bash gives me an error on the line. option_4.sh: line 52: syntactic error: the end of the file was not expected.
#!/bin/bash
echo "Ask for three string from keyboard";
read -p "Give me a string:" string1;
read -p "Give me another string:" string2;
read -p "Give another string:" string3;
if [ -d "$string1" ];
cd "$directorio"
if [ -d "$string1" ];
then
echo ""
echo "The cadena1 is the name of a directory.."
echo "His content ($string1):"
ls ./"$string1"
else
echo "ERROR: The cadena1 does not correspond to the name of a directory."
fi
if [ -d "$string2" ];
cd "$directorio"
if [ -d "$string2" ];
then
echo ""
echo "The cadena2 is the name of a directory."
echo "His content ($string2):"
ls ./"$string2"
else
echo "ERROR: The cadena2 does not correspond to the name of a directory."
fi
if [ -d "$string3" ];
cd "$directorio"
if [ -d "$string3" ];
then
echo ""
echo "The cadena3 is the name of a directory."
echo "His content ($string3):"
ls ./"$string3"
else
echo "ERROR: The cadena1 does not correspond to the name of a directory."
fi
The syntax of an if statement looks like this:
if [ <some test> ]
then
<commands>
else
<commands>
fi
source (edited)
You need to change the first of the two if statements per string to
if [ -d "$string1" ];
then
cd "$directorio";
fi
Or even combine the two checks, because the next check has the same condition:
if [ -d "$string1" ];
then
cd "$directorio" # moved here
echo ""
echo "The cadena1 is the name of a directory.."
echo "His content ($string1):"
ls ./"$string1"
else
echo "ERROR: The cadena1 does not correspond to the name of a directory."
fi
just choose a snippet to describe it, I am not sure whether you want to use absolute path or relative path. so in your script use pushd and popd will be more convenient.
and if you want to add condition check in your script, you need add then after the keyword if, and at the end you need add keyword fi
if [ -d "$string3" ];
cd "$directorio"
if [ -d "$string3" ]; then
pushd "$directorio"
echo ""
echo "The cadena3 is the name of a directory."
echo "His content ($string3):"
ls ./"$string3"
popd
else
echo "ERROR: The cadena1 does not correspond to the name of a directory."
fi
I am new to Linux bash scripting and I can't seem to find what I'm doing wrong. Here's my code. Entering number 2 and 3, after the prompt that I ask the user my code stops it doesn't continue to the IF ELSE statements. Thank you to those who will help!
#!/bin/bash
while true
do
clear
echo "Please enter one of the following options"
echo "1. Move empty files"
echo "2. Check file size"
echo "3. Which file is newer"
echo "4. File check rwx"
echo "5. Exit".
echo -e "Enter Choice:"
read answer
case "$answer" in
1) ./move_empty
exit 55 ;;
2) echo "Enter a filename"
read filename
if [ -f $filename ];
then ./file_size
fi
;;
3) echo "Enter first file:"
read filename
echo "Enter second file:"
read filename2
if [ ! -f "$filename" ];
then
echo "Supplied file name" $filename "does not exist";
if [ $filename" -nt $filename" ]; then
echo $filename "is newer"
exit 1fi
fi ;;
5) exit ;;
esac
done
If you have completed the check at ShellCheck.net, then you should have received:
$ shellcheck myscript
No issues detected!
If you didn't work it down to that point, you are not done. You have multiple quoting problems in your script and you compare $filename -nt $filename (which is always false). Small "attention to detail" issues that make a big difference. ShellCheck.net does a thorough job, but will not find logic issues, those are left to you. The cleanup of your quoting would look similar to:
#!/bin/bash
while true
do
clear
echo "Please enter one of the following options"
echo "1. Move empty files"
echo "2. Check file size"
echo "3. Which file is newer"
echo "4. File check rwx"
echo "5. Exit".
echo -n "Enter Choice: "
read -r answer
case "$answer" in
1) ./move_empty
exit 55
;;
2) echo -n "Enter a filename: "
read -r filename
if [ -f "$filename" ]
then
./file_size
fi
;;
3) echo -n "Enter first file: "
read -r filename
echo -n "Enter second file: "
read -r filename2
if [ ! -f "$filename2" ]
then
echo "Supplied file name $filename does not exist";
if [ "$filename" -nt "$filename2" ]; then
echo "$filename is newer"
exit 1
fi
fi
;;
5) exit
;;
esac
done
(note: you do not need echo -e as there are no backslash escaped characters to handle in your prompt, likely you intended -n to prevent the addition of a newline at the end of the prompt)
(also note: the use of clear, while fine for some terminals, will cause problems with others. Just be aware of the potential issue.)
If your then is on the same line with your conditional expression, e.g. if [ "$filename" -nt "$filename2" ]; then then a ';' is needed after the closing ']' to indicate a newline, otherwise, there is no need for a ';'.
Logic Problems
As discussed, the logic problems are not caught by ShellCheck and you must work though the code. It looks like you intended something like the following:
3) echo -n "Enter first file: "
read -r filename
echo -n "Enter second file: "
read -r filename2
if [ ! -f "$filename" ] || [ ! -f "$filename2" ]
then
echo "Supplied file '$filename' or '$filename2' does not exist";
exit 1
fi
if [ "$filename" -nt "$filename2" ]; then
echo "$filename is newer"
else
echo "$filename2 is newer"
fi
;;
You just have to take it line by line...
Look things over and let me know if you have further questions.
This is a part of a script I'm trying to write.
If the directory exist there is no problem, but I don't know what to do if it not exists.
Some one has an idea how to solve this.
Thanks
do echo "$number"
newdir="../FILE-ID/*/${number:2:1}${number:1:1}/+33$number"
nbrdir=$(ls -lrtd $newdir|wc -l)
echo "$nbrdir"
if [ "$nbrdir" -gt 1 ]; then
echo "$number"
echo "error 1.greater"
fi
if [ "$nbrdir" -eq 1 ]; then
echo " equal 1"
else
echo "equal 0"
fi
done
You can use the following to test whether a file (including a directory) exists:
if [[ -f ${newdir} ]]; then ...
or another switch if you want to test specifically just for a directory:
if [[ -d ${newdir} ]]; then ...
A more comprehensive list can be found here.
If your directory name contains wildcards and matches potentially zero or more, you can use:
nbrdir=$(ls -1d ${newdir} 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
This should give you a count of matching directories. Note that any error message which might be generated will be directed to /dev/null which is probably what you want here to avoid errors messing up your output.
[ -d $newdir ] && echo "Directory exists" || echo "Directory does not exists"
If a file called “output” already exists, rather than a directory, the script
should display an error and quit.
here is my code so far
for file in *
do
if [ ! -f output ]
then echo "error"
exit 1
fi
done
for file in *; do
if [ "$file" = "output" -a -f "$file" ]; then
echo "error"
exit 1
fi
done
Or
for file in *; do
if [ "$file" = "output" ] && [ -f "$file" ]; then
echo "error"
exit 1
fi
done
And with bash, this one's preferred:
for file in *; do
if [[ $file == output && -f $file ]]; then
echo "error"
exit 1
fi
done
If you want to check if the filename contains the word, not just exactly matches it:
for file in *; do
if [[ $file == *output* && -f $file ]]; then
echo "error"
exit 1
fi
done
Why are we processing every file in the subdirectory? Very Odd.
if [ -f output ]; then
echo "'output exists and is a file"
exit 1
fi
The test command (which is also [) (and is also built-in to most shells (see bash man page too) ), responds with a TRUE response for -f output only when output is a file. You can check if it's a directory with -d.
touch something
if [ -f something ]; then echo "something is a file"; fi
if [ -d something ]; then echo "something is not a file"; fi
rm something
mkdir something
if [ -f something ]; then echo "something is not a subdir"; fi
if [ -d something ]; then echo "something is a subdir"; fi
rmdir something
If you try those commands, you'll get:
something is a file
something is a subdir
No point in iterating through the entire directory contents if you're just looking if a specific file/dir exists.