Question

I’m trying to check if a file exists using bash. This is my code

if [-e file.txt]; then
  echo "file exists"
else
  echo "file doesn't exist"
fi

But when I run it I get:

./test.sh: line 3: [-e: command not found

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

[ is not a special token in Bash; it’s just that the word [ is a builtin command (just like echo). So you need a space after it. And, similarly, you need a space before ]:

if [ -e file.txt ] ; then

That said, I recommend [[ ]] instead — it’s safer in a few ways (though it still requires the spaces):

if [[ -e file.txt ]] ; then