I have a directory. It is empty. If i perform ls -lrt , it shows total 0
How do I specify an If condition to perform something, only if the directory is empty.
I mean to ask how to capture that 0 value.
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2See: [Bash checking if folder has contents](http://stackoverflow.com/q/20456666/3776858) and [Checking from shell script if a directory contains files](http://stackoverflow.com/q/91368/3776858) – Cyrus Mar 27 '16 at 08:19
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@Cyrus I checked those too, but I can't seem to work it out. – Animesh Mar 27 '16 at 08:23
2 Answers
13
From here. This should help you run your statements within the if else loop. I saved the DIR in the variable
#!/bin/bash
FILE=""
DIR="/empty_dir"
# init
# look for empty dir
if [ "$(ls -A $DIR)" ]; then
echo "Take action $DIR is not Empty"
else
echo "$DIR is Empty"
fi
# rest of the logic
saan
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1See: [Negate if condition in bash script](http://stackoverflow.com/a/26475397/3776858) – Cyrus Mar 27 '16 at 09:33
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Remove the -A option :
$ mkdir /tmp/aaa
$ ls /tmp/aaa
$ a=\`ls /tmp/aaa`
$ [[ -z $a ]]
$ echo $?
0
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And if there's a hidden (ex `.file`) in the directory? It would still report as empty, yes? Is that not the reason for the `-A` option? – Xen2050 Apr 12 '17 at 22:05
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right. ls -A will list the hidden files like .file, but not . and .. – whogiawho Nov 28 '18 at 23:42
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So, a hidden file inside the directory is ignored by your answer, proving it wrong... – Xen2050 Nov 30 '18 at 03:23