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From: ires@kaspar.ires.com (Bruce R Larson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: testing if a directory is empty (OOOPS!)
Message-ID: <107@kaspar.ires.com>
Date: 19 Apr 91 00:32:55 GMT
References: <1991Apr15.195513.17840@beaver.cs.washington.edu> <MEISSNER.91Apr15221545@curley.osf.org>
Organization: Integral Resources, Milton, MA
Lines: 25

>In article < ... > pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis) writes:
>| So it needs to be:
>| 
>| 	[ "`cd $1 ; echo .??* *`" = ".??* *" ]

In article < ... > meissner@osf.org (Michael Meissner) writes:
> ... the following should work:
>
>	[ "`cd $1; echo .[^.] .??* *`" = ".[^.] .??* *" ]

Here's how I've checked for empty dirs

#!/bin/sh
if [ "`ls -la $1 | wc -l`" -eq 3 ]; then echo empty; fi


NOTE: every "ls -l" I've used lists the "total" number of
entries on its first line of output, hence the "3".

Bruce
-- 
Bruce R. Larson
Integral Resources, Milton MA
Internet:  blarson@ires.com
Uucp:  ..!{world|uunet}!ires.com!blarson