How to check if a symlink exists

Question

I\'m trying to check if a symlink exists in bash. Here\'s what I\'ve tried.

mda=/usr/mda
if [ ! -L $mda ]; then
  echo \"=> File doesn\'t exist\"
fi


mda         


        

Answer 1

How about using readlink?

# if symlink, readlink returns not empty string (the symlink target)
# if string is not empty, test exits w/ 0 (normal)
#
# if non symlink, readlink returns empty string
# if string is empty, test exits w/ 1 (error)
simlink? () {
  test "$(readlink "${1}")";
}

FILE=/usr/mda

if simlink? "${FILE}"; then
  echo $FILE is a symlink
else
  echo $FILE is not a symlink
fi