How can I check if a directory exists in a Bash shell script?

Question

What command can be used to check if a directory exists or not, within a Bash shell script?

Answer 1

You can use test -d (see man test).

-d file True if file exists and is a directory.

For example:

test -d "/etc" && echo Exists || echo Does not exist

Note: The test command is same as conditional expression [ (see: man [), so it's portable across shell scripts.

[ - This is a synonym for the test builtin, but the last argument must, be a literal ], to match the opening [.

For possible options or further help, check:

• help [
• help test
• man test or man [