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From: dmturne@PacBell.COM (Dave Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: How do I tell when a directory is empty in a script?
Message-ID: <6090@ptsfa.PacBell.COM>
Date: 2 Apr 91 17:19:53 GMT
References: <1991Mar30.040400.13893@ncsu.edu> <gt0fjt=@rpi.edu> <563@bria> <=-#g4!g@rpi.edu>
Reply-To: dmturne@PacBell.COM (Dave Turner)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 23

In article <=-#g4!g@rpi.edu> fitz@mml0.meche.rpi.edu (Brian Fitzgerald) writes:
>>>Michael Harris writes:
>>>>When I am running a shell script, how can I tell when a directory is empty?
>>
>>	if [ `ls $dir | wc -l` = 0 ] ; then
>>

Use the form of ls that gives all entries in  a directory including . and .. .
Check for a count of two.

For System V and the Bourne shell

	if [ `ls -a $dir | wc -l` -eq 2 ]
	then
		echo empty
	else
		echo not empty
	fi



-- 
Dave Turner	415/823-2001	{att,bellcore,sun,ames,decwrl}!pacbell!dmturne