Shell Scripting Tests

Question

Dears, i need to test an argument to check if it's a directory, normal file or other kinds of files as i know anything that is not a directory is a file so i can make a test like

br@IBMLC0B2ZJL:/mnt/d/a343$ [ -f gg.sh ] && echo "file"
br@IBMLC0B2ZJL:/mnt/d/a343$ [ -d folder ] && echo "directory"

but i just saw a question that requires to check the file if a normal file or not, is there any ideas to test that ??

The original question : "Write a shell script that accepts a file or directory name as an argument. Have the script report if it is a regular file, a directory, or other type of file. If it is a regular file, exit with a 0 exit status. If it is a directory, exit with a 1 exit status. If it is some other type of file, exit with a 2 exit status."

That's what -f already tests. See gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/… for tests for other types of files. — Shawn
– Shawn, Commented May 8, 2020 at 22:55

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

2

There are different tests you can apply in bash.

-f file is a regular file (not a directory or device file)

-d file is a directory

-b file is a block device

-c file is a character device

-p file is a pipe

-h file is a symbolic link

-L file is a symbolic link

-S file is a socket

-t file (descriptor) is associated with a terminal device This test option may be used to check whether the stdin [ -t 0 ] or stdout [ -t 1 ] in a given script is a terminal.

But from the original question, you don't need to test these all, just the regular and directory, and everything else, maybe like this?

#!/usr/bin/env bash

file="${1:-}"
[ -f "$file" ] && exit 0
[ -d "$file" ] && exit 1
exit 2

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

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answered May 8, 2020 at 22:57

wg1k

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1 Comment

shellter Over a year ago

I think it's worth pointing out that in *nix based OSes everything is some sort of a file, and accessed thru it's path , i.e. /proc/pid/.... or /path/to/file. So when a problem asks about normal file, that is where the testing with -f help (As your answer carefully shows!). Good luck to all!

tio78 · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-08 22:57:58Z

Something like this should do:

#!/bin/bash
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
   echo "Usage: $0 /your/test/target" && exit 123
elif [ -f "$1" ]; then
   echo "file" && exit 0
elif [ -d "$1" ]; then
   echo "directory" && exit 1
else
   echo "other type of file" && exit 2
fi

Example:

root@debian10:~[0]# touch /tmp/test.file
root@debian10:~[0]# mkdir /tmp/test.dir
root@debian10:~[0]# mknod /tmp/ttyS0 c 4 64
root@debian10:~[0]# /tmp/test.sh
Usage: /tmp/test.sh /your/test/target
root@debian10:~[0]# /tmp/test.sh /tmp/test.file 
file
root@debian10:~[0]# echo $?
0
root@debian10:~[0]# /tmp/test.sh /tmp/test.dir/
directory
root@debian10:~[1]# echo $?
1
root@debian10:~[1]# /tmp/test.sh /tmp/ttyS0 
other type of file
root@debian10:~[2]# echo $?
2

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