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Bash - Check if Directory Exists

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Check if Directory Exists

Overview

Sources:

Code

#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
# Check if a directory exists
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
  echo "$DIRECTORY does exist."
else
  echo "$DIRECTORY does not exist."
fi
 
# Taking into account symbolic links
if [ -d "$LINK_OR_DIR" ]; then
  if [ -L "$LINK_OR_DIR" ]; then
    # It is a symlink!
    # Symbolic link specific commands go here.
    rm "$LINK_OR_DIR"
  else
    # It's a directory!
    # Directory command goes here.
    rmdir "$LINK_OR_DIR"
  fi
fi

Details

This script is written in Bash, a popular shell scripting language used in Unix-based systems. The script checks if a directory or a symbolic link exists and performs actions based on the result.

The first line #!/usr/bin/env bash is called a shebang. It tells the system that this script should be run using Bash.

The script first checks if a directory exists. The -d flag in the if statement checks if the $DIRECTORY exists and is a directory. If it does, it prints a message saying that the directory exists. If it doesn’t, it prints a message saying that the directory does not exist.

The script then checks if a directory or a symbolic link exists. The -d flag checks if the $LINK_OR_DIR exists and is a directory. If it does, it then checks if it’s a symbolic link using the -L flag. If it is a symbolic link, it removes the symbolic link using the rm command. If it’s not a symbolic link (meaning it’s a regular directory), it removes the directory using the rmdir command.

Note that the rm command is used to remove files and symbolic links, while the rmdir command is used to remove empty directories. If the directory is not empty, you would need to use rm -r to remove it and all of its contents. Be careful when using these commands, as they permanently delete files and directories.

Appendix

Note created on 2025-12-23 and last modified on 2025-12-23.

See Also

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