My code takes two arguments from the user. My goal is to find the folder given by the user (the first argument) and make as many copies as they want of it (the second argument). As of right now, my code recursively prints out all subdirectories and files within the subdirectories... My code also copies files as many times as the user specifies. However, that's my problem, my copy function only works on files and not folders... I am wondering how to modify my copy function (or any other part of the code) so that it recursively copies the specified folder along with all of its original content
I know my cp function towards the bottom of the code needs to be changed to
-r ./sourceFolder ./destFolder but I do not know how to do that given the arguments passed in. After all, the destination folder name will just be the original folder with an incrementing number at the end of it.
#!/bin/bash
read -p "Your folder name is $1 and the number of copies is $2. Press Y for yes N for no " -n 1 -r
if ! [[ $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]
then
echo
echo "Rerun script and pass in the folder and how many copies yo would like (e.g folder 4)"
exit
fi
echo
echo "-------------COPY FILE----------------"
FOLDER=$1
for f IN $folder
do
if [ ! -f "$FOLDER" ]
then
echo "folder "$FOLDER" does not exist"
exit 1
fi
done
DIR="."
function list_files()
{
cd $1
echo; echo "$(pwd)":; #Display Directory name
for i in *
do
if test -d "$i" #if dictionary
then
list_files "$i" #recursively list files
cd ..
else
echo "$i"; #Display File name
fi
done
}
j=$2
for i in "$*"
do
DIR=$1
list_files "$DIR"
for ((i=1; i<J; i++))
do
cp "$1" "$1$i"; #copies the file i amount of times, and creates new files with names that increment by 1
done
shift 1
done
If you want to copy recursive you can use cp -r <source folder> <destination folder>.
This will copy the content of the source file to the destination folder.
#!/bin/bash
read -p "Your folder name is $1 and the number of copies is $2. Press Y for yes N for no " -n 1 -r
if ! [[ $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]
then
echo
echo "Rerun script and pass in the folder and how many copies yo would like (e.g folder 4)"
exit
fi
echo
echo "-------------COPY FILE----------------"
FOLDER=$1
if [ ! -d "$FOLDER" ]
then
echo "folder $FOLDER does not exist"
exit 1
fi
j=$2
for ((i=1; i<=j; i++))
do
cp -r "$1" "$1$i"; #copies the file i amount of times, and creates new files with names that increment by 1
echo "folder $1 copied to $1$i"
done
I changed the folder check from -f to -d, changed the variable nameing a bit (case), removed the list_files function and changed in the last for loop the i<$j to i<=j because the loop starts with 1. Then I added the -r and it works.
I have written a shell script to move files from source directory to destination directory.
/home/tmp/ to /home/from/
The move happens correctly but it displays message
mv: /home/tmp/testfile_retry_17072017.TIF
/home/tmp/testfile_retry_17072017.TIF are identical.
and if source directory is empty it displays
mv: cannot rename /home/tmp/* to /home/from/*
for file in /home/tmp/*
if [ -f "$file" ]
then
do
DIRPATH=$(dirname "${file}")
FILENAME=$(basename "${file}")
# echo "Dirpath = ${DIRPATH} Filename = ${FILENAME}"
mv "${DIRPATH}/"${FILENAME} /home/from
echo ${FILENAME} " moved to from directory"
done
else
echo "Directory is empty"
fi
You should use find instead of /home/tmp/* as shown.
for file in $(find /home/tmp/ -type f)
do
if [ -f "$file" ]
then
DIRPATH=$(dirname "${file}")
FILENAME=$(basename "${file}")
# echo "Dirpath = ${DIRPATH} Filename = ${FILENAME}"
mv "${DIRPATH}/"${FILENAME} /home/from
echo ${FILENAME} " moved to from directory"
else
echo "Directory is empty"
fi
done
You have things a bit out of order with:
for file in /home/tmp/*
if [ -f "$file" ]
then
do
Of course "$file" will exist -- you are looping for file in /home/tmp/*. It looks like you intended
for file in /home/tmp/*
do
FILENAME=$(basename "${file}")
if [ ! -f "/home/from/$FILENAME" ] ## if it doesn't already exist in dest
then
Note: POSIX shell include parameter expansions that allow you to avoid calling dirname and basename. Instead you can simply use "${file##*/}" for the filename (which just says remove everything from the left up to (and including) the last /). That is the only expansion you need (as you already know the destination directory name). This allows you to check [ -f "$dest/${f##*/}" ] to determine if a file with the same name you are moving already exists in /home/from
You could use that to your advantage with:
src=/home/tmp ## source dir
dst=/home/from ## destination dir
for f in "$src"/* ## for each file in src
do
[ "$f" = "$src/*" ] && break ## src is empty
if [ -f "$dst/${f##*/}" ] ## test if it already exists in dst
then
printf "file '%s' exists in '%s' - forcing mv.\n" "${f##*/}" "$dst"
mv -f "$f" "$dst" ## use -f to overwrite existing
else
mv "$f" "$dst" ## regular move otherwise
fi
done
There is a great resource for checking your shell code called ShellCheck.net. Just type your code into the webpage (or paste it) and it will analyze your logic and variable use and let you know where problem are identified.
Look things over and let me know if you have further questions.
I ended up with many of my songs in both .m4a and .mp3 format. The duplicate .mp3s are in the same folders as their corresponding .m4as, and I'd like to delete the .mp3s. I'm trying to write a bash script to do that for me, but I'm very new to bash scripting and unsure of what I'm doing wrong. Here's my code:
#!/bin/bash
for f in ~/music/artist/album/* ; do
if [ -f f.m4a ] && [ -f f.mp3 ] ; then
rm f.mp3
echo "dup deleted"
fi
done
I'd really appreciate it if someone could figure out what's going wrong here. Thanks!
#!/bin/bash
# No need to loop through unrelated files (*.txt, directories, etc), right?
for f in ~/music/artist/album/*.m4a; do
f="${f%.*}"
if [[ -f ${f}.mp3 ]]; then
rm -f "${f}.mp3" && echo >&2 "${f}.mp3 deleted"
fi
done
#!/bin/bash
for f in ~/music/artist/album/* ; do
f="${f%.*}" # remove extension in simple cases (not tar.gz)
if [[ -f ${f}.m4a && -f ${f}.mp3 ]] ; then
rm -f "${f}.mp3" && echo "dup deleted"
fi
done
Hello i am currently optimizing some code i have and am now wondering why this snippet of code does not work.
what is supposed to happen is when i copy the file i have to type in a destination for the copy if i type a destination that doesn't exist then the script will create a directory and copy that file to it.
this is what i have and i am wondering why it is not working
echo "Current Directory "
ls -a;
echo -n "Please Enter file name to Copy: "
read fileToCopy
echo -n "Enter Destination for Copy: ~/ "
read location
if [ -d $location ]
then
cp $fileToCopy $location
echo "File Successfully Copied to ~/ $location "
elif [ !-d $location ]
then
mkdir $location
cp $fileToCopy $location
echo "$location was created and the File was Copied to It! "
echo -n "Press Enter to Continue: "
else
echo "That file Does Not Exist! "
fi
Two issues:
One:
elif [ !-d $location ]
You need a space between ! and -d.
Two:
Quote your variables.
It's always good to error check. What if the user didn't enter a directory name or a file to copy?
In shell, a null variable will cause an error in a statement like this:
if [ $dir -eq foo ]
then
…
fi
That's because the shell will directly substitute the value and then interpret the line. If $dir is null, the statement will be:
if [ -eq foo ]
then
…
fi
This isn't valid. If you had quotes around $dir:
if [ "$dir" -eq foo ]
then
…
fi
You'd get this:
if [ "" -eq foo ]
then
…
fi
Which is valid.
If you're using bash it's preferable to use the double square brackets:
if [[ $dir -eq foo ]]
then
…
fi
This is a special improved syntactic test that will handle null variables and variables with spaces without having to use quotes.
The ! is a special shell operator that negates the return value of a command/statement. For the shell to understand the operator, you must make sure there is white space on either side of it. Also test the output of your mkdir statement to make sure it worked. And use the -p parameter. This will create parent directories.
if [[ ! -d "$dir" ]]
then
if ! mkdir -p "$dir"
then
echo "Could not create dir '$dir'" 1>&2
exit 2
fi
fi
Note that I always put quotes around my variable and I use the if statement to test to see if my command succeeded or not. After all, the user might have tried to create a directory where I don't have write permission.
One more secret trick. You can use set -xv to turn on shell script debugging. This will print out each statement as written and then as the shell interprets it. To turn it off use set +xv.
What command checks if a directory exists or not within a Bash shell script?
To check if a directory exists:
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
echo "$DIRECTORY does exist."
fi
To check if a directory does not exist:
if [ ! -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
echo "$DIRECTORY does not exist."
fi
However, as Jon Ericson points out, subsequent commands may not work as intended if you do not take into account that a symbolic link to a directory will also pass this check.
E.g. running this:
ln -s "$ACTUAL_DIR" "$SYMLINK"
if [ -d "$SYMLINK" ]; then
rmdir "$SYMLINK"
fi
Will produce the error message:
rmdir: failed to remove `symlink': Not a directory
So symbolic links may have to be treated differently, if subsequent commands expect directories:
if [ -d "$LINK_OR_DIR" ]; then
if [ -L "$LINK_OR_DIR" ]; then
# It is a symlink!
# Symbolic link specific commands go here.
rm "$LINK_OR_DIR"
else
# It's a directory!
# Directory command goes here.
rmdir "$LINK_OR_DIR"
fi
fi
Take particular note of the double-quotes used to wrap the variables. The reason for this is explained by 8jean in another answer.
If the variables contain spaces or other unusual characters it will probably cause the script to fail.
Always wrap variables in double quotes when referencing them in a Bash script.
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
# Will enter here if $DIRECTORY exists, even if it contains spaces
fi
Kids these days put spaces and lots of other funny characters in their directory names. (Spaces! Back in my day, we didn't have no fancy spaces!)
One day, one of those kids will run your script with $DIRECTORY set to "My M0viez" and your script will blow up. You don't want that. So use double quotes.
Note the -d test can produce some surprising results:
$ ln -s tmp/ t
$ if [ -d t ]; then rmdir t; fi
rmdir: directory "t": Path component not a directory
File under: "When is a directory not a directory?" The answer: "When it's a symlink to a directory." A slightly more thorough test:
if [ -d t ]; then
if [ -L t ]; then
rm t
else
rmdir t
fi
fi
You can find more information in the Bash manual on Bash conditional expressions and the [ builtin command and the [[ compound commmand.
I find the double-bracket version of test makes writing logic tests more natural:
if [[ -d "${DIRECTORY}" && ! -L "${DIRECTORY}" ]] ; then
echo "It's a bona-fide directory"
fi
Shorter form:
# if $DIR is a directory, then print yes
[ -d "$DIR" ] && echo "Yes"
A simple script to test if a directory or file is present or not:
if [ -d /home/ram/dir ] # For file "if [ -f /home/rama/file ]"
then
echo "dir present"
else
echo "dir not present"
fi
A simple script to check whether the directory is present or not:
mkdir tempdir # If you want to check file use touch instead of mkdir
ret=$?
if [ "$ret" == "0" ]
then
echo "dir present"
else
echo "dir not present"
fi
The above scripts will check if the directory is present or not
$? if the last command is a success it returns "0", else a non-zero value.
Suppose tempdir is already present. Then mkdir tempdir will give an error like below:
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘tempdir’: File exists
To check if a directory exists you can use a simple if structure like this:
if [ -d directory/path to a directory ] ; then
# Things to do
else #if needed #also: elif [new condition]
# Things to do
fi
You can also do it in the negative:
if [ ! -d directory/path to a directory ] ; then
# Things to do when not an existing directory
Note: Be careful. Leave empty spaces on either side of both opening and closing braces.
With the same syntax you can use:
-e: any kind of archive
-f: file
-h: symbolic link
-r: readable file
-w: writable file
-x: executable file
-s: file size greater than zero
You can use test -d (see man test).
-d file True if file exists and is a directory.
For example:
test -d "/etc" && echo Exists || echo Does not exist
Note: The test command is same as conditional expression [ (see: man [), so it's portable across shell scripts.
[ - This is a synonym for the test builtin, but the last argument must, be a literal ], to match the opening [.
For possible options or further help, check:
help [
help test
man test or man [
Or for something completely useless:
[ -d . ] || echo "No"
Here's a very pragmatic idiom:
(cd $dir) || return # Is this a directory,
# and do we have access?
I typically wrap it in a function:
can_use_as_dir() {
(cd ${1:?pathname expected}) || return
}
Or:
assert_dir_access() {
(cd ${1:?pathname expected}) || exit
}
The nice thing about this approach is that I do not have to think of a good error message.
cd will give me a standard one line message to standard error already. It will also give more information than I will be able to provide. By performing the cd inside a subshell ( ... ), the command does not affect the current directory of the caller. If the directory exists, this subshell and the function are just a no-op.
Next is the argument that we pass to cd: ${1:?pathname expected}. This is a more elaborate form of parameter substitution which is explained in more detail below.
Tl;dr: If the string passed into this function is empty, we again exit from the subshell ( ... ) and return from the function with the given error message.
Quoting from the ksh93 man page:
${parameter:?word}
If parameter is set and is non-null then substitute its value;
otherwise, print word and exit from the shell (if not interactive).
If word is omitted then a standard message is printed.
and
If the colon : is omitted from the above expressions, then the
shell only checks whether parameter is set or not.
The phrasing here is peculiar to the shell documentation, as word may refer to any reasonable string, including whitespace.
In this particular case, I know that the standard error message 1: parameter not set is not sufficient, so I zoom in on the type of value that we expect here - the pathname of a directory.
A philosophical note:
The shell is not an object oriented language, so the message says pathname, not directory. At this level, I'd rather keep it simple - the arguments to a function are just strings.
if [ -d "$Directory" -a -w "$Directory" ]
then
#Statements
fi
The above code checks if the directory exists and if it is writable.
More features using find
Check existence of the folder within sub-directories:
found=`find -type d -name "myDirectory"`
if [ -n "$found" ]
then
# The variable 'found' contains the full path where "myDirectory" is.
# It may contain several lines if there are several folders named "myDirectory".
fi
Check existence of one or several folders based on a pattern within the current directory:
found=`find -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "my*"`
if [ -n "$found" ]
then
# The variable 'found' contains the full path where folders "my*" have been found.
fi
Both combinations. In the following example, it checks the existence of the folder in the current directory:
found=`find -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "myDirectory"`
if [ -n "$found" ]
then
# The variable 'found' is not empty => "myDirectory"` exists.
fi
DIRECTORY=/tmp
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
echo "Exists"
fi
Try online
Actually, you should use several tools to get a bulletproof approach:
DIR_PATH=`readlink -f "${the_stuff_you_test}"` # Get rid of symlinks and get abs path
if [[ -d "${DIR_PATH}" ]] ; Then # Now you're testing
echo "It's a dir";
fi
There isn't any need to worry about spaces and special characters as long as you use "${}".
Note that [[]] is not as portable as [], but since most people work with modern versions of Bash (since after all, most people don't even work with command line :-p), the benefit is greater than the trouble.
Have you considered just doing whatever you want to do in the if rather than looking before you leap?
I.e., if you want to check for the existence of a directory before you enter it, try just doing this:
if pushd /path/you/want/to/enter; then
# Commands you want to run in this directory
popd
fi
If the path you give to pushd exists, you'll enter it and it'll exit with 0, which means the then portion of the statement will execute. If it doesn't exist, nothing will happen (other than some output saying the directory doesn't exist, which is probably a helpful side-effect anyways for debugging).
It seems better than this, which requires repeating yourself:
if [ -d /path/you/want/to/enter ]; then
pushd /path/you/want/to/enter
# Commands you want to run in this directory
popd
fi
The same thing works with cd, mv, rm, etc... if you try them on files that don't exist, they'll exit with an error and print a message saying it doesn't exist, and your then block will be skipped. If you try them on files that do exist, the command will execute and exit with a status of 0, allowing your then block to execute.
[[ -d "$DIR" && ! -L "$DIR" ]] && echo "It's a directory and not a symbolic link"
N.B: Quoting variables is a good practice.
Explanation:
-d: check if it's a directory
-L: check if it's a symbolic link
To check more than one directory use this code:
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY1" ] && [ -d "$DIRECTORY2" ] then
# Things to do
fi
Check if the directory exists, else make one:
[ -d "$DIRECTORY" ] || mkdir $DIRECTORY
[ -d ~/Desktop/TEMPORAL/ ] && echo "DIRECTORY EXISTS" || echo "DIRECTORY DOES NOT EXIST"
Using the -e check will check for files and this includes directories.
if [ -e ${FILE_PATH_AND_NAME} ]
then
echo "The file or directory exists."
fi
This answer wrapped up as a shell script
Examples
$ is_dir ~
YES
$ is_dir /tmp
YES
$ is_dir ~/bin
YES
$ mkdir '/tmp/test me'
$ is_dir '/tmp/test me'
YES
$ is_dir /asdf/asdf
NO
# Example of calling it in another script
DIR=~/mydata
if [ $(is_dir $DIR) == "NO" ]
then
echo "Folder doesnt exist: $DIR";
exit;
fi
is_dir
function show_help()
{
IT=$(CAT <<EOF
usage: DIR
output: YES or NO, depending on whether or not the directory exists.
)
echo "$IT"
exit
}
if [ "$1" == "help" ]
then
show_help
fi
if [ -z "$1" ]
then
show_help
fi
DIR=$1
if [ -d $DIR ]; then
echo "YES";
exit;
fi
echo "NO";
As per Jonathan's comment:
If you want to create the directory and it does not exist yet, then the simplest technique is to use mkdir -p which creates the directory — and any missing directories up the path — and does not fail if the directory already exists, so you can do it all at once with:
mkdir -p /some/directory/you/want/to/exist || exit 1
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
# Will enter here if $DIRECTORY exists
fi
This is not completely true...
If you want to go to that directory, you also need to have the execute rights on the directory. Maybe you need to have write rights as well.
Therefore:
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ] && [ -x "$DIRECTORY" ] ; then
# ... to go to that directory (even if DIRECTORY is a link)
cd $DIRECTORY
pwd
fi
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ] && [ -w "$DIRECTORY" ] ; then
# ... to go to that directory and write something there (even if DIRECTORY is a link)
cd $DIRECTORY
touch foobar
fi
In kind of a ternary form,
[ -d "$directory" ] && echo "exist" || echo "not exist"
And with test:
test -d "$directory" && echo "exist" || echo "not exist"
file="foo"
if [[ -e "$file" ]]; then echo "File Exists"; fi;
The ls command in conjunction with -l (long listing) option returns attributes information about files and directories.
In particular the first character of ls -l output it is usually a d or a - (dash). In case of a d the one listed is a directory for sure.
The following command in just one line will tell you if the given ISDIR variable contains a path to a directory or not:
[[ $(ls -ld "$ISDIR" | cut -c1) == 'd' ]] &&
echo "YES, $ISDIR is a directory." ||
echo "Sorry, $ISDIR is not a directory"
Practical usage:
[claudio#nowhere ~]$ ISDIR="$HOME/Music"
[claudio#nowhere ~]$ ls -ld "$ISDIR"
drwxr-xr-x. 2 claudio claudio 4096 Aug 23 00:02 /home/claudio/Music
[claudio#nowhere ~]$ [[ $(ls -ld "$ISDIR" | cut -c1) == 'd' ]] &&
echo "YES, $ISDIR is a directory." ||
echo "Sorry, $ISDIR is not a directory"
YES, /home/claudio/Music is a directory.
[claudio#nowhere ~]$ touch "empty file.txt"
[claudio#nowhere ~]$ ISDIR="$HOME/empty file.txt"
[claudio#nowhere ~]$ [[ $(ls -ld "$ISDIR" | cut -c1) == 'd' ]] &&
echo "YES, $ISDIR is a directory." ||
echo "Sorry, $ISDIR is not a directoy"
Sorry, /home/claudio/empty file.txt is not a directory
There are great solutions out there, but ultimately every script will fail if you're not in the right directory. So code like this:
if [ -d "$LINK_OR_DIR" ]; then
if [ -L "$LINK_OR_DIR" ]; then
# It is a symlink!
# Symbolic link specific commands go here
rm "$LINK_OR_DIR"
else
# It's a directory!
# Directory command goes here
rmdir "$LINK_OR_DIR"
fi
fi
will execute successfully only if at the moment of execution you're in a directory that has a subdirectory that you happen to check for.
I understand the initial question like this: to verify if a directory exists irrespective of the user's position in the file system. So using the command 'find' might do the trick:
dir=" "
echo "Input directory name to search for:"
read dir
find $HOME -name $dir -type d
This solution is good because it allows the use of wildcards, a useful feature when searching for files/directories. The only problem is that, if the searched directory doesn't exist, the 'find' command will print nothing to standard output (not an elegant solution for my taste) and will have nonetheless a zero exit. Maybe someone could improve on this.
The below find can be used,
find . -type d -name dirname -prune -print
One Liner:
[[ -d $Directory ]] && echo true
(1)
[ -d Piyush_Drv1 ] && echo ""Exists"" || echo "Not Exists"
(2)
[ `find . -type d -name Piyush_Drv1 -print | wc -l` -eq 1 ] && echo Exists || echo "Not Exists"
(3)
[[ -d run_dir && ! -L run_dir ]] && echo Exists || echo "Not Exists"
If an issue is found with one of the approaches provided above:
With the ls command; the cases when a directory does not exists - an error message is shown
[[ `ls -ld SAMPLE_DIR| grep ^d | wc -l` -eq 1 ]] && echo exists || not exists
-ksh: not: not found [No such file or directory]