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Bash check if folder exists


Simple bash script for beginners trying to get their hands wet on bash scripting.

The code below will ask for input and the input should be a string or a folder name.

The script will just do a basic ls and if the folder name is found it will show “The folder is found” or else the next echo statement is displayed.

Instead of simply displaying an echo command a function or another script can be called to execute a process further.

#!/bin/bash
# This script will ask for a string or folder name and check whether it is present or not

echo "Enter folder name, followed by [ENTER]:"

read folder_name

ls | grep ^$folder_name && echo "The folder is found" || echo "The folder cannot be found"
#Script ends

It’s a one liner evaluation, some sort an if then else in other programming languages, the && statement is executed if the evaluation is true, and if the evaluation is false the || is executed.

The read folder_name line, is the statement that will hold the input value from the user, it's equivalent to inputbox on other programming language.

To find the folder name is using ls command, of course it will also look for files.

To check recursively change the command to: ls -R /folder_path folder_name_to_search

That’s a very basic script which can be used or tweak to build a more useful script. For example, instead of echo an email can be sent to the system admin.


Cheers! Till next time.


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