Can anyone please advise why the following is not working as I expected it to be?
Test script as below:
#!/bin/ksh
for checkdir in dir*
do
echo "Checking ${checkdir}"
if [ -d "${checkdir}" ] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a directory"
elif [ -h "${checkdir}" ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a symbolic link"
fi
done
Output from sample run as below:
$: ./x.ksh
Checking dir1
... dir1 is a directory
Checking dir2
... dir2 is a directory
Checking dir3
... dir3 is a directory
Directory listing as below:
$: ls -l
total 24
drwxr-x--x 2 oracle dba 4096 Aug 31 23:42 dir1
drwxr-x--x 2 oracle dba 4096 Aug 31 23:42 dir2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oracle dba 4 Aug 31 23:43 dir3 -> /tmp
-rwxr----- 1 oracle dba 239 Aug 31 23:45 x.ksh
Am kinda hoping that it will report dir3 as a symbolic link. At the moment, only workaround I can think of is to do ls -l ${checkdir} | grep "^l" and if it is non-zero then it is a symbolic link, otherwise it is not. Is this the solution?
I've also tried doing -L instead of -h and it gives the same result.
Feedback and advise much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
/tmp$: cat x.ksh
#!/bin/ksh
for checkdir in dir*
do
echo "Checking ${checkdir}"
if [[ -d "${checkdir}" ]] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a directory"
elif [[ -h "${checkdir}" ]] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a symbolic link"
fi
done
/tmp$: ls -ltrd dir*
drwxr-x--x 2 oracle dba 4096 Aug 31 23:42 dir1
drwxr-x--x 2 oracle dba 4096 Aug 31 23:42 dir2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oracle dba 4 Aug 31 23:43 dir3 -> /tmp
/tmp$: ./x.ksh
Checking dir1
... dir1 is a directory
Checking dir2
... dir2 is a directory
Checking dir3
... dir3 is a directory
/tmp$:
Also tried CarloM's suggestion and same problem.
---------- Post updated at 04:38 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:27 PM ----------
Hi CarloM,
Tried your suggestion, unfortunately, now it goes like below:
tmp $: ls -ltrd dir*
drwxr-x--x 2 oracle dba 4096 Aug 31 23:42 dir1
drwxr-x--x 2 oracle dba 4096 Aug 31 23:42 dir2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oracle dba 4 Aug 31 23:43 dir3 -> /tmp
tmp $: cat y.ksh
#!/bin/ksh
for checkdir in dir*
do
echo "Checking ${checkdir}"
if [[ -h "${checkdir}" ]] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a directory"
elif [[ -d "${checkdir}" ]] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a symbolic link"
fi
done
tmp $: cat z.ksh
#!/bin/ksh
for checkdir in dir*
do
echo "Checking ${checkdir}"
if [[ -L "${checkdir}" ]] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a directory"
elif [[ -d "${checkdir}" ]] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a symbolic link"
fi
done
tmp $: ./y.ksh
Checking dir1
... dir1 is a symbolic link
Checking dir2
... dir2 is a symbolic link
Checking dir3
... dir3 is a directory
tmp $: ./z.ksh
Checking dir1
... dir1 is a symbolic link
Checking dir2
... dir2 is a symbolic link
Checking dir3
... dir3 is a directory
tmp $:
Nearly there but the echo statements do not match the tests. The Conditional Expression syntax "[[ .....]]" is not needed.
#!/bin/ksh
for checkdir in dir*
do
echo "Checking ${checkdir}"
if [ -h "${checkdir}" ] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a symbolic link"
elif [ -d "${checkdir}" ] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a directory"
fi
done
Thanks a lot methyl, that is so very embarrassing :wall::o ....
All good now ... still stumped on why the -d returns true for a symbolic link though, it's like it is trying to check whether the link that the symlink is set to is a directory.
I can live with doing the -h then the -d for the time being ... thanks again for pointing out my mistakes ... need to grab some more coffee I guess
Below is an example where I create another symbolic link but the actual directory /tmp/x does not exist and my original script works like how I want it to. Any chance that there is a test where it will not try and resolve what the symbolic link is linking to?
tmp $: ./x.ksh
Checking dir1
... dir1 is a directory
Checking dir2
... dir2 is a directory
Checking dir3
... dir3 is a directory
Checking dir4
... dir4 is a symbolic link
tmp $: cat x.ksh
#!/bin/ksh
for checkdir in dir*
do
echo "Checking ${checkdir}"
if [[ -d "${checkdir}" ]] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a directory"
elif [[ -h "${checkdir}" ]] ; then
echo "... ${checkdir} is a symbolic link"
fi
done
tmp $: ls -ltrd /tmp
drwxrwxrwt 79 root root 221472 Sep 1 12:41 /tmp
tmp $: ls -ltrd /tmp/x
/tmp/x: No such file or directory
tmp $:
This is a generic answer.
We don't know what Operating System and version you have or what version of Korn Shell you are running.
Even having test -h rather than test -L syntax suggests that this is not mainstream unix.
