CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
Cezary
Cezary

Reputation: 33

Check if there are 1 or more specific files in a directory?

I need to create script that goes like this:

if directory contains atleast one file (1 or more) that starts with 'naz'
    #do something
else (contains 0 files that start with 'naz')
    #do something else

My problem is that when I try

if [ -f naz* ]

I end up with

bash: [: too many arguments

because there are more than 1 files that meet the criteria. I'm looking for a solution that would work with multiple files found.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 70

Answers (2)

Gilles Quénot
Gilles Quénot

Reputation: 185179

You can't use [ test like this on multiple files.

Better do:

shopt -s nullglob
compgen -W naz* &>/dev/null
case $? in
    0) echo "only one file match" ;;
    1) echo "more than one file match" ;;
    2) echo "no file match" ;;
esac

Upvotes: 3

Mia
Mia

Reputation: 2676

This solution might take a while to evaluate in a directory with a large number of files but is more succinct 

if [ `find . -name "naz*" -type f -d 1 | wc -l` -ge 1 ]

If you want to travel to subdirectories you can do so by removing the -d 1 part.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions