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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting error "test: [-d: unary operator expected" very confused. Post 302325277 by orionrush on Sunday 14th of June 2009 09:38:03 AM
Old 06-14-2009
Network error "test: [-d: unary operator expected" very confused.

Im trying to check if a series of directory exists and if not create them, and am having issues. All the instances of test return with the error "test: [-d: unary operator expected". Searching around I see that if the variable is in double quotes its solves the problem - but for some reason, not for me. The script still makes the directories if the don't exists, however if they DO - it still tries to create them.

What noob things am I doing wrong here?

Cheers,
tired in glasgow
btw Im using OSX 10.5

Code:
#!/bin/bash
location_Parent=~/Documents/sight_of_sound
location_IMG=~/Documents/Sight_of_sound/IMG
location_AUD=~/Documents/Sight_of_sound/AUD

if test [-d "$location_Parent"]
then
echo "Parent Directory OK"
else
    echo "Error: Parent directory does not exist. Creating directory"
    mkdir $location_Parent
fi

if test [-d "$location_IMG"]
 then
    echo "IMG Directory OK"
else
    echo "Error: IMG directory does not exist. Creating directory"
    mkdir $location_IMG
fi

if test [-d "$location_AUD"]
then
    echo "AUD Directory OK"
else
    echo "Error: AUD directory does not exist. Creating directory"
    mkdir $location_AUD
fi

 

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test(1F)							   FMLI Commands							  test(1F)

NAME
test - condition evaluation command SYNOPSIS
test expression expression DESCRIPTION
test evaluates the expression expression and if its value is true, sets a 0 (TRUE) exit status; otherwise, a non-zero (FALSE) exit status is set; test also sets a non-zero exit status if there are no arguments. When permissions are tested, the effective user ID of the process is used. All operators, flags, and brackets (brackets used as shown in the second SYNOPSIS line) must be separate arguments to test. Normally these items are separated by spaces. USAGE
Primitives The following primitives are used to construct expression: -r filename True if filename exists and is readable. -w filename True if filename exists and is writable. -x filename True if filename exists and is executable. -f filename True if filename exists and is a regular file. -d filename True if filename exists and is a directory. -c filename True if filename exists and is a character special file. -b filename True if filename exists and is a block special file. -p filename True if filename exists and is a named pipe (FIFO). -u filename True if filename exists and its set-user-ID bit is set. -g filename True if filename exists and its set-group-ID bit is set. -k filename True if filename exists and its sticky bit is set. -s filename True if filename exists and has a size greater than 0. -t[fildes] True if the open file whose file descriptor number is fildes (1 by default) is associated with a terminal device. -z s1 True if the length of string s1 is 0. -n s1 True if the length of the string s1 is non-zero. s1 = s2 True if strings s1 and s2 are identical. s1 != s2 True if strings s1 and s2 are not identical. s1 True if s1 is not the null string. n1 -eq n2 True if the integers n1 and n2 are algebraically equal. Any of the comparisons -ne, -gt, -ge, -lt, and -le may be used in place of -eq. Operators These primaries may be combined with the following operators: ! Unary negation operator. -a Binary and operator. -o Binary or operator (-a has higher precedence than -o). `(expression)` Parentheses for grouping. Notice also that parentheses are meaningful to the shell and, therefore, must be quoted. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
find(1), sh(1), attributes(5) NOTES
If you test a file you own (the -r , -w , or -x tests), but the permission tested does not have the owner bit set, a non-zero (false) exit status will be returned even though the file may have the group or other bit set for that permission. The correct exit status will be set if you are super-user. The = and != operators have a higher precedence than the -r through -n operators, and = and != always expect arguments; therefore, = and != cannot be used with the -r through -n operators. If more than one argument follows the -r through -n operators, only the first argument is examined; the others are ignored, unless a -a or a -o is the second argument. SunOS 5.10 5 Jul 1990 test(1F)
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