How to check whether directory has files in it or not in shell script?


 
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# 1  
Old 05-13-2013
Linux How to check whether directory has files in it or not in shell script?

hi,

I am having script in which i want to check if directory has any file in it or not. If directory contains a single or more files then and only then it should proceed to further operations...

P.S.: Directory might have thousand number of files. so there might be chance of getting error message of argument list too long...
if anyone can help me with this? Code snippet is as follows -
Code:
files=directory1/* 
 if [ ${#files[@]} -gt 0 ]     
 then
          tar -czvf $file1.tar.gz directory1/ 
          mv $file1.tar.gz directory2

Issue is that though directory1 is empty it is going inside if and creating tar file of the empty directory structure. If there are no files under directory1 then i just want to avoid tarring of the same.

Last edited by VSom007; 05-13-2013 at 09:59 AM..
# 2  
Old 05-13-2013
Please search. There are various threads stating similar topic.

e.g. the one I found is here
This User Gave Thanks to clx For This Post:
# 3  
Old 05-13-2013
Code:
if [ `ls | wc -l` -gt 0 ]

This User Gave Thanks to balajesuri For This Post:
# 4  
Old 05-14-2013
Code:
CNT=`ls $dir/* | wc -l`
  if [ $CNT -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "There are no files in the dir"
  else
    echo "There are files in the dir"

This User Gave Thanks to apenkov For This Post:
# 5  
Old 05-15-2013
GNU Linux:
Code:
if find "$dir" -prune -empty | grep -q .
then
  echo "$dir is empty"
fi

This User Gave Thanks to MadeInGermany For This Post:
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