How do I tell if a regular file does not exist in Bash?

Question

I\'ve used the following script to see if a file exists:

#!/bin/bash

FILE=$1     
if [ -f $FILE ]; then
   echo \"File $FILE exists.\"
else
   echo \"File $         


        

Answer 1

There are three distinct ways to do this:

1. Negate the exit status with bash (no other answer has said this):

   if ! [ -e "$file" ]; then
       echo "file does not exist"
   fi
   

   Or:

   ! [ -e "$file" ] && echo "file does not exist"
   

2. Negate the test inside the test command [ (that is the way most answers before have presented):

   if [ ! -e "$file" ]; then
       echo "file does not exist"
   fi
   

   Or:

   [ ! -e "$file" ] && echo "file does not exist"
   

3. Act on the result of the test being negative (|| instead of &&):

   Only:

   [ -e "$file" ] || echo "file does not exist"
   

   This looks silly (IMO), don't use it unless your code has to be portable to the Bourne shell (like the /bin/sh of Solaris 10 or earlier) that lacked the pipeline negation operator (!):

   if [ -e "$file" ]; then
       :
   else
       echo "file does not exist"
   fi