How to see if the directory exists?

Question

How can I check if /bin/x86_64/bin/ls is a directory in a bash shell script

Here is what I tried:

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -eq 2 ]; then
    if [[ "$1" = /* ]]
    then
    cd ./bin/x86_64/bin/ls
        if [ -d "$1" ]; then
            echo "ok"
            i="$1"
            echo $i
        else
            echo "error2"
            exit
        fi
    else
        echo "error"
        exit
    fi
fi

Solution

You can use the following to check for the existence of a directory:

if [[ -d "$1" ]]; then

If you want to check for any file you would use

if [[ -e "$1" || -L "$1" ]]; then

If you want to check if a file is a regular file (or symlink to regular file), but NOT a directory (or a device, socket, named pipe...) file then you can use:

if [[ -f "$1" ]]; then

If the file might exist but you want to be sure it is not zero size:

if [[ -s "$1" ]] then;

All those tests are based on the result of the stat() system call (except for -L that relies on lstat()). If you don't have the permission to do such a call on the file (for example because you don't have search access to the directory the file is in or to directories involved in the resolution of the file for symlinks), then those tests will silently return false as if the files didn't exist.

[[ ... ]] is a ksh operator, also supported by bash and zsh. The standard equivalent (to use in sh) is with the [ command (for the second example above, use [ -e "$1" ] || [ -L "$1" ]).

Comments

[Skaperen]

did you mean if [[ "$1" = "/*" ]]?

[Michael Durrant]

the cd ./bin/x86_65/bin/ls seems unusual. Try a format more like cd "/bin/x86_64/bin" using quotes and omitting the ls at the end as that is probably a command not a directory.

[Michael Durrant]

Also, do you get an error ?

[user3334375]

doesn;t work :(

[Michael Durrant]

In what way and AGAIN what error(s) do you get? It's good that you provide the details of what you have attempted, however you are unlikely to get much help unless you respond to the requests for more details about what error or response you get.

[ryanpcmcquen]

If you use single brackets these commands will have more compatibility.