Linux test command

pvar · #1 (**permalink**) 07-08-2004

Hi,

I was trying to test the presence of some files on Red hat Linux enterprise version 2.4.9 using the following command

test -f /home/pv/T20*

I am getting the error, too many parameters, when I have multiple files starting with T20 on that directory. When there is no files or just one file, no errors and the command works.

Any idea whay I can't check the presence of multiple files? Or is there any other command I can use for this purpose.

Thanks in advance for any help.

zazzybob · #2 (**permalink**) 07-08-2004

You could try iterating through the files instead

Code:

for file in /home/pv/T20*
do
    if [ -f "$file" ]; then
        echo "File $file exists"
    fi
done

Is this what you want?

cheers
ZB

pvar · #3 (**permalink**) 07-09-2004

I just want to see(by a a single commad) if there is any file starting with those letters present in that directory so that I can do some processing on those files. test -f /home/pv/T20* command works perfect on HP-UX and I assume it is a bug on this flavor of Linux.

ddegrendele · #4 (**permalink**) 07-15-2004

Indeed, ran also the test command on both OS'ses and came to the same result.

Maybe you are looking for the find command, and when a file is found you can use the -exec option.

Cheers.
Dieter

Ygor · #5 (**permalink**) 07-15-2004

Another way to test for files

Code:

if ls /home/pv/T20* >/dev/null 2>&1
then
    echo true
fi

However, this would return true for directories and empty files. Since you want to do some processing on the files why not use a for loop...

Code:

for file in $(ls /home/pv/T20*)
do
   [ -s $file ] || continue
   echo do something with $file
   :
done

If there are no files then the code within the for loop is not executed and this message is sent to standard error: "/home/pv/T20* not found"

PS: It is not good practice to rely on "if test -f" for multiple files. Here's why (on HP-UX)....

$ ls *.txt
b.txt c.txt
$ if test -f *.txt
> then
> echo true
> else
> echo false
> fi
true
$ mkdir a.txt
$ if test -f *.txt
> then
> echo true
> else
> echo false
> fi
false

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