Question

My conditional works properly when the dirs exist, but if they don’t, it seems to execute both then and else statements (is that the correct term?).

script.sh

#!/bin/bash
if [[ $(find path/to/dir/*[^thisdir] -type d -maxdepth 0) ]]
  then
    find path/to/dir/*[^thisdir] -type d -maxdepth 0 -exec mv {} new/location \;
    echo "Huzzah!"
  else
    echo "hey hey hey"
fi

prompt
For the first call, the dirs are there; in the second, they’ve been moved from the first call.

$ sh script.sh
Huzzah!
$ sh script.sh
find: path/to/dir/*[^thisdir]: No such file or directory
hey hey hey

How can I fix this?

tried suggestion(s)

if [[ -d $(path/to/dir/*[^thisdir]) ]]
  then
    find path/to/dir/*[^thisdir] -type d -maxdepth 0 -exec mv {} statamic-1.3-personal/admin/themes \;
    echo "Huzzah!"
  else
    echo "hey hey hey"
fi

result

$ sh script.sh
script.sh: line 1: path/to/dir/one_of_the_dirs_to_be_moved: is a directory
hey hey hey

Answer 1

Your error is probably occurring at if [[ $(find path/to/dir/*[^thisdir] -type d -maxdepth 0) ]] and then it goes to else because find errors out.

find wants its directory parameter to exist. Based on what you are trying to do you should probably consider

$(find path/to/dir/ -name "appropriate name pattern" -type d -maxdepth 1)

Also, I’d consider using actual logical function in if. See this for file conditionals.