Checking for existence of a flat file in UNIX !

Hi All,

I have a requirement where in i need to check for existence of a file and later execute some pmcmd commands related to informatica. I tried many ways but was unsuccessful could you please throw some light. Below are the sample codes i wrote.

Example 1:

#!/bin/ksh
file_path=/export/home/orainfodev/sam s
filename="voke.txt"
for file in $file_path; do
[[ -f $filename ]]
pmcmd startworkflow -u Administrator -p SADMIN -s odsdbq1:4001 -f IR_Custom WF_Test_Mapping
done

Example 2:

#!/bin/ksh
if (! -e "/u01/app/informatica/7.1.4/server/TgtFiles/sample.txt")
then
pmcmd startworkflow -u Administrator -p SADMIN -s odsdbq1:4001 -f IR_Custom WF_Test_Mapping
else
echo "Sorry Cannot start the workflow as there is no file existing in the folder"
fi

Example 3:

#!/bin/ksh
filename = "export/home/orainfodev/invoke.txt"
if test -f "$filename" then
echo "file exists"
else
echo "file does not exists"
fi

Example 4:

#!/bin/ksh
echo "Please enter a file name"
read fname
if test -f "$fname"
then echo "$fname exists"
else
echo "$fname does not exists"
fi

Thanks & Regards,
Ariean.

All of your attempts are very close. As far as I can tell, the last one should have worked -- can you say what error message you get?

The -f command is just fine, but you are not using the result for anything. You could wrap that in an "if" or other conditional and it would have worked. Also the file_path needs to be put in double quotes when you declare it. Presumably the file_path paths are directories in which you want to look for voke.txt?

for file in /export/home/orainfodev/sam s ; do
    if test -f $file/voke.txt; then
        pmcmd startworkflow -u Administrator -p SADMIN -s odsdbq1:4001 -f IR_Custom WF_Test_Mapping
    else
        echo "$0: $file/voke.txt: not found" >&2
    fi
done

(Isn't the workflow command supposed to refer to the file you are checking for also, though? Either by descending into the directory where you found it, or via a command-line parameter.)

The parentheses in the "if" are not correct syntax, but again, very close.

You need a semicolon before the "then", or put it on a new line. Then this would work. Sheer bad luck you didn't stumble over the solution at this point.

This works for me under bash. Some shells might be picky about requiring new lines after "then" and "else", maybe.

i've moved the thread from "solaris" to "shell scripting..." because this is no solaris related question.

greets,
DN2

Thanks for your reply, based on your suggestion i tried rewriting the code as below but some how i didn't understand why it is executing the statement in the else part even after the condition in the if statement is true or satisfied or pmcmd command getting executed. Could you please throw some light. Thank you.

==================

#!/bin/ksh
for file in /export/home/orainfodev/sam s ; do
if test -f $file/invoke.txt; then
pmcmd startworkflow -u Administrator -p SADMIN -s odsdbq1:4001 -f IR_Custom WF_Test_Mapping
else
echo "$0: $file/invoke.txt: not found" >&2
#echo "Could not able to find the file, cannot execute the workflow thanks!"
fi
done

=================

Do you really intend to loop over two files, "/export/home/orainfodev/sam" and "s"?

If that is intended to be a single file, it needs to be quoted. And, if so, why are you using a loop?