bash / check-if-file-exists

bash check if file or directory exists

Quick Answer

# File exists and is a regular file
if [ -f "/path/to/file.txt" ]; then
  echo "file exists"
fi

# Directory exists
if [ -d "/path/to/dir" ]; then
  echo "directory exists"
fi

# Any file/dir/symlink exists
[ -e "/path/to/thing" ] && echo "exists"

Usage

You need to check if a file or directory exists before reading, writing, or deleting it.

Other causes & fixes

All file test operators

[ -e file ]   # exists (file, dir, symlink)
[ -f file ]   # exists and is a regular file
[ -d file ]   # exists and is a directory
[ -L file ]   # exists and is a symbolic link
[ -r file ]   # exists and is readable
[ -w file ]   # exists and is writable
[ -x file ]   # exists and is executable
[ -s file ]   # exists and has size > 0
[ -z file ]   # string is empty (different — for variables)

File does not exist

if [ ! -f "config.json" ]; then
  echo "config.json missing — creating default"
  cp config.example.json config.json
fi

Combine conditions

# File exists AND is readable
if [ -f "$file" ] && [ -r "$file" ]; then
  cat "$file"
fi

Use [[ ]] for safer tests

# [[ ]] handles empty variables gracefully
file=""
if [[ -f "$file" ]]; then   # safe — no word splitting issue
  echo "exists"
fi
# [ -f $file ] would fail if $file is empty

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