How to Check if a File or Directory Exists in Bash

When writing shell scripts, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to perform an action based on whether a file exists or not.

In Bash, you can use the test command to check whether a file exists and determine the type of the file.

The test command takes one of the following syntax forms:

test EXPRESSION
[ EXPRESSION ]
[[ EXPRESSION ]]

If you want your script to be portable, prefer the [ form, which is available in POSIX shells. The [[ (double bracket) form is supported by Bash, Zsh, and Ksh, but it is not part of POSIX sh.

Check if File Exists #

When checking if a file exists, the most commonly used FILE operators are -e and -f. The first one will check whether a file exists regardless of the type, while the second one will return true only if the FILE is a regular file (not a directory or a device).

To check whether a path exists regardless of its type (file, directory, socket, and so on), use -e:

FILE=/etc/resolv.conf
if [ -e "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE exists."
fi

The most readable option when checking whether a file exists or not is to use the test command in combination with the if statement . Any of the snippets below will check whether the /etc/resolv.conf file exists:

FILE=/etc/resolv.conf
if test -f "$FILE"; then
    echo "$FILE exists."
fi

FILE=/etc/resolv.conf
if [ -f "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE exists."
fi

FILE=/etc/resolv.conf
if [[ -f "$FILE" ]]; then
    echo "$FILE exists."
fi

If you want to perform a different action based on whether the file exists or not, use the if/then construct:

FILE=/etc/resolv.conf
if [ -f "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE exists."
else
    echo "$FILE does not exist."
fi

You can also use the test command without the if statement. The command after the && operator will only be executed if the exit status of the test command is true.

FILE=/etc/resolv.conf
test -f "$FILE" && echo "$FILE exists."

[ -f "$FILE" ] && echo "$FILE exists."

[[ -f "$FILE" ]] && echo "$FILE exists."

If you want to run a series of commands after the && operator, enclose the commands in curly brackets separated by ; or &&:

[ -f "$FILE" ] && { echo "$FILE exists."; cp "$FILE" /tmp/; }

Check if Directory Exists #

The -d operator tests whether a path exists and is a directory.

For example, to check whether the /etc/docker directory exists, you would use:

DIR=/etc/docker
if [ -d "$DIR" ]; then
    echo "$DIR is a directory."
fi

[ -d "$DIR" ] && echo "$DIR is a directory."

To run different commands depending on whether the directory exists, use an if/else block:

DIR=/etc/docker
if [ -d "$DIR" ]; then
    echo "$DIR is a directory."
else
    echo "$DIR does not exist or is not a directory."
fi

To check whether a directory does not exist, negate the expression with !:

DIR=/etc/docker
if [ ! -d "$DIR" ]; then
    echo "$DIR does not exist or is not a directory."
fi

Note that -e is not a substitute for -d. It returns true for a regular file as well, so it confirms that the path exists without telling you what kind of path it is. Use -d whenever the script needs a directory specifically.

A common reason to run this check is making sure a directory is in place before a script writes into it. In that case you often do not need the test at all. The -p flag of the mkdir command creates any missing parent directories and exits quietly when the directory is already there:

mkdir -p /var/backups/mysql

Reach for an explicit -d test when a missing directory should stop the script rather than be created, such as when a required configuration directory should have been provisioned during deployment.

To test whether a directory exists and is empty, combine -d with a check on its contents:

DIR=/var/backups/mysql
if [ -d "$DIR" ] && [ -r "$DIR" ] && [ -z "$(ls -A "$DIR")" ]; then
    echo "$DIR exists and is empty."
fi

The -A option makes ls list hidden entries while leaving out . and .., so a directory that holds only dotfiles is correctly reported as not empty. The -d and -r tests run first, so ls is skipped when the path is missing, is not a directory, or cannot be read. Without the -r check, a failed listing can produce no standard output and make an inaccessible directory look empty. The -s operator is not a directory-content test: it checks the directory entry’s own byte size, not whether the directory contains names.

Check if File Does Not Exist #

Like many other languages, the test expression can be negated using the ! (exclamation mark) logical not operator:

FILE=/etc/resolv.conf
if [ ! -f "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE does not exist."
fi

The same check as a one-liner:

[ ! -f "$FILE" ] && echo "$FILE does not exist."

Check if File Is Readable, Writable, or Executable #

To test permissions, use -r, -w, and -x:

FILE=/usr/local/bin/script.sh

if [ -r "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE is readable."
fi

if [ -w "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE is writable."
fi

if [ -x "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE is executable."
fi

Check if File Is Not Empty #

The -s operator checks whether a path exists and has a size greater than zero. To require a regular file as well, combine -f and -s:

FILE=/var/log/syslog

if [ -f "$FILE" ] && [ -s "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE is not empty."
fi

Check if a File Is a Symlink #

Use -L to check for a symbolic link:

FILE=/etc/localtime

if [ -L "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "$FILE is a symbolic link."
fi

Check if Multiple Files Exist #

To test whether multiple files exist, combine separate checks with &&:

if [ -f /etc/resolv.conf ] && [ -f /etc/hosts ]; then
    echo "Both files exist."
fi

if [[ -f /etc/resolv.conf && -f /etc/hosts ]]; then
    echo "Both files exist."
fi

Equivalent variants without using the IF statement:

[ -f /etc/resolv.conf ] && [ -f /etc/hosts ] && echo "Both files exist."

[[ -f /etc/resolv.conf && -f /etc/hosts ]] && echo "Both files exist."

File Test Operators #

The test command includes the following FILE operators that allow you to test for particular types of files:

• -b FILE - True if the FILE exists and is a special block file.
• -c FILE - True if the FILE exists and is a special character file.
• -d FILE - True if the FILE exists and is a directory.
• -e FILE - True if the FILE exists, regardless of type.
• -f FILE - True if the FILE exists and is a regular file (not a directory or device).
• -G FILE - True if the FILE exists and is owned by the effective group ID.
• -h FILE - True if the FILE exists and is a symbolic link.
• -g FILE - True if the FILE exists and has set-group-id (sgid) flag set.
• -k FILE - True if the FILE exists and has a sticky bit flag set.
• -L FILE - True if the FILE exists and is a symbolic link.
• -O FILE - True if the FILE exists and is owned by the effective user ID.
• -p FILE - True if the FILE exists and is a named pipe (FIFO).
• -r FILE - True if the FILE exists and is readable.
• -S FILE - True if the FILE exists and is a socket.
• -s FILE - True if the FILE exists and has nonzero size.
• -u FILE - True if the FILE exists and set-user-id (suid) flag is set.
• -w FILE - True if the FILE exists and is writable.
• -x FILE - True if the FILE exists and is executable.

Conclusion #

For scripts that run across different shells, the single-bracket [ form is the portable choice. Double brackets [[ add useful extras like pattern matching and regex but work only in Bash, Ksh, and Zsh. For the full operator reference, run man test or help test (for the built-in version) in your terminal.

About the authors

Dejan Panovski

Dejan Panovski is the founder of Linuxize, an RHCSA-certified Linux system administrator and DevOps engineer based in Skopje, Macedonia. Author of 800+ Linux tutorials with 20+ years of experience turning complex Linux tasks into clear, reliable guides.

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