detecting if a directory exists

knobby67 · 10-05-2008, 10:24 AM

Hi all,
can anyone help me with this problem (I have very little understanding of Linux commands). I have a makefile which I use a rm $(OBJECT_FOLDER) I then create it using mkdir, however the first time I run it the object folder does not exist so my makefile reports an error.

Is there a way I can detect if the folder exists? A sort of "if folder then remove old folder"

Thanks in advance

nadroj · 10-05-2008, 11:24 AM

in bash you can use something like "if [ -d /some/folder/ ]" which is true if the file exists and is a folder

drchuck · 10-05-2008, 11:31 AM

even simpler still:

Code:

[[ -e $DIR ]] && rmdir $DIR

Have a look at the advanced bash shell scripting guide. It's all in there, and then some.

toshiro · 10-06-2008, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drchuck

even simpler still:

Code:

[[ -e $DIR ]] && rmdir $DIR

Have a look at the advanced bash shell scripting guide. It's all in there, and then some.

I think is better to use -d instead of -e (-e only asserts that a file exists, but don't tell whether it's a directory, -d does that).

Code:

[[ -d $DIR]] && rmdir $DIR