identify whether idrectory or ordinary file

surjyap · #1 (**permalink**) 11-05-2005

What are the different ways to identify a given file is an ordinary file or a directory?
Yes we can do it by giving the command :
ls -l <filename>

What else?

vino · #2 (**permalink**) 11-05-2005

Within a script, it would look like this

Code:

if [ -d /home/surjyap ] ; then
echo " /home/surjyap" is a directory
elif [ -f /home/surjyap ] ; then
echo "/home/surjyap is file"
fi ;

Vino

surjyap · #3 (**permalink**) 11-05-2005

no not by using if. is there any other command or technique available?

vino · #4 (**permalink**) 11-05-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by surjyap

is there any other command or technique available?

Yes.

This one just popped out of my head. Very unconventional tho'...

Use rm

Look at the demo below.

Code:

sh-2.05b$ mkdir suryap
sh-2.05b$ ls -l
drwxr-xr-x    2 -------- g900         4096 Nov  5 01:58 suryap
sh-2.05b$ rm suryap/
rm: cannot remove `suryap': Is a directory
sh-2.05b$ rm -r suryap/
sh-2.05b$ ls -l suryap
ls: suryap: No such file or directory

Code:

sh-2.05b$ touch suryap
sh-2.05b$ ls -l
-rwxr-xr-x    2 -------- g900         4096 Nov  5 02:00 suryap
sh-2.05b$ rm suryap
sh-2.05b$ ls -l suryap
ls: suryap: No such file or directory

vino

reborg · #5 (**permalink**) 11-05-2005

man file
man stat

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