Checking from shell script if a directory contains files

Asked 2008-09-18T10:05:52.217

161

From a shell script, how do I check if a directory contains files?

Something similar to this

if [ -e /some/dir/* ]; then echo "huzzah"; fi;

but which works if the directory contains one or several files (the above one only works with exactly 0 or 1 files).

bash unix shell

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1 Answer

# Works on hidden files, directories and regular files
### isEmpty()
# This function takes one parameter:
# $1 is the directory to check
# Echoes "huzzah" if the directory has files
function isEmpty(){
  if [ "$(ls -A $1)" ]; then
    echo "huzzah"
  else 
    echo "has no files"
  fi
}

answered 2011-01-24T03:05:58.523

Checking from shell script if a directory contains files

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