Question

I have few files in a folder with name pattern in which one of the section is variable.

file1.abc.12.xyz
file2.abc.14.xyz
file3.abc.98.xyz

So the third section (numeric) in above three file names changes everyday.

Now, I have a script which does some tasks on the file data. However, before doing the work, I want to check whether the file exists or not and then do the task:

if(file exist) then
     //do this
fi

I wrote the below code using wildcard ‘*’ in numeric section:

export mydir=/myprog/mydata

if[find $mydir/file1.abc.*.xyz]; then 
   # my tasks here

fi

However, it is not working and giving below error:

 [find: not found [No such file or directory]

Using -f instead of find does not work as well:

if[-f $mydir/file1.abc.*.xyz]; then
  # my tasks here

fi

What am I doing wrong here ? I am using korn shell.

Thanks for reading!

Answer 1

I was not using spaces before the unix keywords…

For e.g. “if[-f” should actually be ” if [ -f” with spaces before and after the bracket.