check if directory exists

jerardfjay · #1 (**permalink**) 06-13-2005

Hi,

I need to prompt for a response from a user to enter a path

Code:

read dest_dir?"Please Enter Directory :"

How do I do this until a valid directory is entered by the user. I can use

Code:

[ -d dest_dir ]

to check the existence of the directory. However when I try the following I cannot get it to work.

Code:

while [ -z $dest_dir ]
do
    read dest_dir?"Please Enter Directory :"
    if [ -d $dest_dir ];
       then
             echo "Invalid directory entered. Please try again"
    fi
done

This is what I am getting as an output when I execute the above piece of code.

test.sh: test: 0403-004 Specify a parameter with this command

What am i doing wrong. Please advise. Thanks.

reborg · #2 (**permalink**) 06-13-2005

quote the $dest_dir in your test.

Code:

[ -z "$dest_dir" ]

jerardfjay · #3 (**permalink**) 06-13-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by reborg

quote the $dest_dir in your test.

Code:

[ -z "$dest_dir" ]

Thanks reborg. Now I have the following

Code:

while [ -z "$dest_dir" ]
do
    read dest_dir?"Please Enter Directory :"
    if [ -d $dest_dir ];
       then
             echo "Invalid directory entered. Please try again"
    fi
done

When executed and if the response is just a "CR". I get the following
test.sh
Please Enter Directory :
test.sh[4]: test: 0403-004 Specify a parameter with this command.
Please Enter Directory :

To overcome the same I changed line 4 to also include quotes. Also I included the negation on this check to make it work correctly as follows

Code:

while [ ! -d "$dest_dir" ]
do
    read dest_dir?"Please Enter Directory :"
    if [ ! -d "$dest_dir" ];
       then
             echo "Invalid directory entered. Please try again"
    fi
done

.

Thanks.

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