CODEWITHSUNDEEP
shell
Astro - Amit
Astro - Amit

Reputation: 767

Delete a directory only if it exists using a shell script

I have a shell (ksh) script. I want to determine whether a certain directory is present in /tmp, and if it is present then I have to delete it. My script is:

test

#!/usr/bin/ksh
# what should I write here?
if [[ -f /tmp/dir.lock ]]; then
    echo "Removing Lock"
    rm -rf /tmp/dir.lock
fi

How can I proceed? I'm not getting the wanted result: the directory is not removed when I execute the script and I'm not getting Removing Lock output on my screen.

I checked manually and the lock file is present in the location. The lock file is created with set MUTEX_LOCK "/tmp/dir.lock" by a TCL program.

Upvotes: 6

Views: 37434

Answers (2)

Guru
Guru

Reputation: 17054

For directory check, you should use -d:

if [[ -d /tmp/dir.lock ]]; then
    echo "Removing Lock"
    rm -rf /tmp/dir.lock
fi

Upvotes: 4

Jens
Jens

Reputation: 72756

In addition to -f versus -d note that [[ ]] is not POSIX, while [ ] is. Any string or path you use more than once should be in a variable to avoid typing errors, especially when you use rm -rf which deletes with extreme prejudice. The most portable solution would be

DIR=/tmp/dir.lock
if [ -d "$DIR" ]; then
    printf '%s\n' "Removing Lock ($DIR)"
    rm -rf "$DIR"
fi

Upvotes: 22

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