How to check if a files exists in a specific directory in a bash script?

Question

This is what I have been trying and it is unsuccessful. If I wanted to check if a file exists in the ~/.example directory

FILE=$1
if [ -e $FILE ~/.example ]; then
      echo "File exists"
else
      echo "File does not exist"
fi

Write the path you want to check in the test. Do you want to check for a $FILE ~/.example file? — Etan Reisner
– Etan Reisner, Commented Apr 28, 2015 at 18:19
How we can check *.txt files available in /home/tmp directory ?? — Bhagesh Arora
– Bhagesh Arora, Commented May 11, 2022 at 20:52

Eric Renouf · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-14 23:29:12Z

16

You can use $FILE to concatenate with the directory to make the full path as below.

FILE="$1"
if [ -e ~/.myexample/"$FILE" ]; then
    echo "File exists"
else
    echo "File does not exist"
fi

edited May 14, 2017 at 23:29

answered Apr 28, 2015 at 18:21

Eric Renouf

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Comments

Alec · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-14 06:09:00Z

2

Late to the party here but a simple solution is to use -f

if [[ ! -f $FILE]]
then
  echo "File does not exist"
fi

A few more examples here if you're curious

answered Mar 14, 2020 at 6:09

Alec

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Comments

Jahid · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-28 18:45:46Z

1

This should do:

FILE=$1
if [[ -e ~/.example/$FILE && ! -L ~/example/$FILE ]]; then
      echo "File exists and not a symbolic link"
else
      echo "File does not exist"
fi

It will tell you if $FILE exists in the .example directory ignoring symbolic links.

You can use this one too:

[[ -e ~/.example/$FILE && ! -L ~/example/$FILE ]] && echo "Exists" || echo "Doesn't Exist"

edited Apr 28, 2015 at 18:45

answered Apr 28, 2015 at 18:25

Jahid

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2 Comments

Kenster Over a year ago

This specifically tests whether it's a plain file. The -e in the OP's question tests for anything with the right name, e.g. it could be a directory.

Jahid Over a year ago

Thanks for clarification, @Kenster, I took file as plain file, even though OP used -e. Maybe he is meaning both file and folder by file in the context.

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