bash scripting question

james.farrow · 02-25-2023, 05:58 AM

Hello experts!
I would like to find a directory, then once found cd into the found directory - I would really appreciate any help!
Thank you in advance.

james.farrow · 02-25-2023, 06:00 AM

Sorry forgot to add - finding the directory(or not) is ok. I've tried putting the find command in an if statement but then how do I get the found directory into a variable for later use.

pan64 · 02-25-2023, 06:06 AM

would be nice to show exactly what did you try and we can help you to extend it.

james.farrow · 02-25-2023, 06:52 AM

I'm looking for a directory called inputsheets, then when found cd to it and copy the contents to my destination but I'm struggling with it...

if [[ find $PMPATH -type d name 'inputsheet/' ]]
then cd inputsheet
cp -r /inputshhet *.xml $destination
echo "inputsheets/ copied"
else echo "inputsheets not found"
fi

michaelk · 02-25-2023, 06:56 AM

Put the output of the find command in a variable first.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
dir=$(find / -type d -name "some_directory" 2>/dev/null)
if [ ! -z "$dir" ]; then
   echo "$dir found"
else 
   echo "not found"
fi

pan64 · 02-25-2023, 07:04 AM

if [[ find $PMPATH -type d name 'inputsheet/' ]]
here you need not use [[ and ]]
if find $PMPATH -type d name 'inputsheet/';
but anyway you need to handle the case when more than one dir was found.

james.farrow · 02-25-2023, 07:54 AM

Thanks everyone for your help I now have this

#copy inputsheets to destination, find directory in case inputsheets not default location
insheetsdir=$(find $PMPATH -type d -name 'inputsheets' 2>/dev/null)
if [[ ! -z '$insheetsdir' ]]
then
cd $insheetsdir
cp *.xml $inputsheetsdest
echo "copying inputsheets"
else echo "inputsheets not found"
fi

It works, but as pan 64 said - how to handle case if more than 1 found ( there should not be more than 1) but what to do?

Thanks again

michaelk · 02-25-2023, 08:16 AM

Here is one way.

Code:

  if (( $(echo "$insheetsdir" | wc -l) > 1 )); then
      echo "multiple dirs found"
  fi

MadeInGermany · 02-26-2023, 09:45 AM

Note that a $var should be put in "" to avoid unwanted expansions.
The following simply checks the exit status of the cd command.

Code:

insheetsdir=$(find "$PMPATH" -type d -name 'inputsheets' 2>/dev/null)
if [[ -n "$insheetsdir" ]] && cd "$insheetsdir"
then
  cp *.xml "$inputsheetsdest"
  echo "copying inputsheets"
else
  echo "inputsheets not found"
fi

If there are two or more directories then the cd to the combined string (in "") fails, nothing will be copied, and it will say "not found".

pan64 · 02-26-2023, 11:57 PM

you can also do something like this

Code:

while read -r insheetsdir;
do
   whatever you want
done < <(find ....)

(if you have more than one dir to find)

BW-userx · 02-27-2023, 07:30 AM

simple as this, from the CLI to check it to see if that works first before using it, which it does

Code:

 if [[ -d /home ]] ; then echo "here" ; cd /home ; echo $PWD ; else echo "not here"  ; fi
here
/home

which translates to

Code:

dir=/he/foo/bar/directory

if [[ -d "$dir" ]] ; then
      echo "here"
      cd "$dir"
      echo $PWD
fi

if you have no idea where the directory is

Code:

#!/bin/env bash

#using a subdir to seek for
seekdir="efi"

while read d 
do
# 'd'  gives the absolute path to the directory 
#using bash subscript '=~' to check for a string within a string 
# if mixed case  just lower case everything for checking 

if [[ "${d,,}" =~ "${seekdir,,}" ]] ; then
    cd "$d"
    echo "$PWD"
    break
    fi
done < <(find / -type d -iname "$seekdir"  2>/dev/null)

MadeInGermany · 02-27-2023, 11:30 AM

I wonder how the

Code:

[[ "${d,,}" =~ "${seekdir,,}" ]]

can ever be false if the input is from

Code:

find / -type d -iname "$seekdir"

BW-userx · 02-27-2023, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadeInGermany

I wonder how the

Code:

[[ "${d,,}" =~ "${seekdir,,}" ]]

can ever be false if the input is from

Code:

find / -type d -iname "$seekdir"

that was just a little might not apply now but it is useful whenever needed bonus .. no charge .. didn't mean to cause confusion because I did not change the search pattern to show its effects. it too ensures uniformity if you happen to be writing a big script and keep vars on the top then that is covered if you change it and add a cap within in .. etc...

if $d had somewhere within it had a CAP letter well then

allend · 02-28-2023, 12:31 AM

A bash alternative using the globstar shell option.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

topdir="$HOME"
inputdir="/**/inputsheets/"

shopt -s globstar
i=0
for d in $topdir$inputdir; do
  [ -d "$d" ] && indir[i++]="$d"
done
echo "Found $i directories at:"
for ((j=0;j<i;j++)); do
  echo "${indir[j]}"
done

BW-userx · 02-28-2023, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend

A bash alternative using the globstar shell option.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

topdir="$HOME"
inputdir="/**/inputsheets/"

shopt -s globstar
i=0
for d in $topdir$inputdir; do
  [ -d "$d" ] && indir[i++]="$d"
done
echo "Found $i directories at:"
for ((j=0;j<i;j++)); do
  echo "${indir[j]}"
done

ah, the globstar kid finally shows up showing his oooouuu la la look at this code ... nice...