[Linux-disciples] check script arguments for directory

[Stephen R Laniel]

On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 11:58:20AM -0500, Jamie Forrest wrote:
> Is there a way to check that an argument passed to a shell script is  
> a directory and not just an ordinary file?

See the manpage for test(1) -- specifically the '-d' test.
E.g.,

(12:44) slaniel at slaniel-laptop:~$ (test -d /etc/passwd) || echo "Not a directory"
Not a directory
(12:45) slaniel at slaniel-laptop:~$ (test -d /etc) || echo "Not a directory"
(12:45) slaniel at slaniel-laptop:~$ 

I hope that's clear.

There are shorter ways than using test(1), like

if [ -d /etc/passwd ]; then
	echo "/etc/passwd is a directory"
fi

-- 
Stephen R. Laniel
steve at laniels.org
Cell: +(617) 308-5571
http://laniels.org/
PGP key: http://laniels.org/slaniel.key
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