Shell Programming and Scripting

file2=/directory/file/*
file=/usr/local/mailfile.txt


if [ -f ${file2} ];
 then
  ls -la $file2 > $file
fi

if [ -s ${file} ] ; then
  mail -s "$Subject" "$Recipients"  < $file
fi

file2=/directory/file/* # lets create a variable which contains all the files in a directory.
file=/usr/local/mailfile.txt


if [ -f ${file2} ]; # if a file exists (this will work only if a one file is a file2 directory)
 then
  ls -la $file2 > $file # list all the files into a txt file  ? You could do these without any variables or conditions ...
fi
....

ls -al /directory/file/*  > ${file}.txt
if [ -s ${file}.txt ]; then # if ls output gave something to file.txt (there are files)
... mail or whatever
else
printf "%s\n" "Directory is empty, will do nothing"
fi

dir=/directory/file/*
file=/usr/local/mailfile.txt


if [ "$(ls -a $dir)" ] ; then
        ls -la $dir > $file
else
        :
fi

if [ -s ${file} ] ; then
  mail -s "$Subject" "$Recipients"  < $file
fi

ls -al $dir > $file &&
if [ -s $file ]; then mail -s "$Subject" "$Recipients" < $file ; fi ||
printf "%s\n" "No files in directory or some other ls exit code error"

if ls -al $dir > $file && [ -s $file ]
then
  mail -s "$Subject" "$Recipients" < $file
else
  printf "%s\n" "No files in directory or some other ls exit code error"
fi