Shell variable issue when trying to mkdir

Question

Any ideas what is wrong with this code?

CLIENT_BUILD_DIR="~/Desktop/TempDir/"

if [ ! -d $CLIENT_BUILD_DIR ]
then
   {
      mkdir $CLIENT_BUILD_DIR
   }
fi

I get the error: mkdir: ~/Desktop: No such file or directory.

Obviously the directory is there and the script works if I replace the variable with ~/Desktop/TempDir/

Solution 1

The quotes prevent the expansion of ~.

Use:

CLIENT_BUILD_DIR=~/Desktop/TempDir/

if [ ! -d "$CLIENT_BUILD_DIR" ]
then mkdir "$CLIENT_BUILD_DIR"
fi

Solution 2

The ~ character is not reinterpret when used in a variable.

You can use CLIENT_BUILD_DIR="$HOME/Desktop/TempDir/" instead.

Solution 3

mkdir ${CLIENT_BUILD_DIR} will do. No directory will be created if it already exists.

Comments

[Jite]

One more tip, you can simplify the code to [ -d $CLIENT_BUILD_DIR ] || mkdir $CLIENT_BUILD_DIR and preferably add || echo "Error trying to create dir: $CLIENT_BUILD_DIR" :)

[anishsane]

Why not simply use mkdir -p? You don't have to check if not exist then create.