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shelldirectoryquoting

Confirm the existence of directory under the home directory


I would like to check the existence of directory and write the script below, but this doesn't work properly.

#!/bin/sh
if [ -d "~/sample" ]
then
    echo 'exists'
else
    echo 'NOT exists'
fi

Scripts below can work.

#!/bin/sh
if [ -d "/home/user01/sample" ]
then
    echo 'exists'
else
    echo 'NOT exists'
fi

if [ -d "~/sample" ] is something wrong?


Solution

  • Yes the double quotes are what is not letting the ~ expand... the following will work:

    if [ -d ~"/sample" ]; then
       echo "exists"
    fi
    

    It is usually better to use:

    if [ -d "$HOME/sample" ] ; then
       echo "exists"
    fi
    

    $HOME is typically set by Bourne shells