Question

I’m using the find command in my bash script like so

for x in `find ${1} .....`;
do
    ...
done

However, how do I handle the case where the input to my script is a file/directory that does not exist? (ie I want to print a message out when that happens)

I’ve tried to use -d and -f, but the case I am having trouble with is when ${1} is “.” or “..”

When the input is something that doesn’t exist it does not enter my for loop.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Bash scripting is a bit weird. Practice before implementation. But this site seems to break it down well.

If the file exists, this works:

if [ -e "${1}" ]
then
  echo "${1} file exists."
fi

If the file does not exist, this works. Note the ‘!’ to denote ‘not’:

if [ ! -e "${1}" ]
then
  echo "${1} file doesn't exist."
fi