How can I check if a directory exists in a Bash shell script?

Question

What command can be used to check if a directory exists or not, within a Bash shell script?

Answer 1

1. 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
   

2. 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