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

if [ -d "$Directory" -a -w "$Directory" ]
then
    #Statements
fi

The above code checks if the directory exists and if it is writable.

Answer 2

file="foo" 
if [[ -e "$file" ]]; then echo "File Exists"; fi;

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

[[ -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

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

Use the file program. Considering all directories are also files in Linux, issuing the following command would suffice:

file $directory_name

Checking a nonexistent file: file blah

Output: cannot open 'blah' (No such file or directory)

Checking an existing directory: file bluh

Output: bluh: directory