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I am trying to test if file "file1.c" is present in the current working directory, what am I doing wrong with my test command? I thought I understood this command, am I doing something wrong for the Bourne shell that I do not know about?

#! /bin/sh
NAME=$1
if((test -e "$NAME"));then
echo File $NAME present
else
echo File $NAME not present
fi
share|improve this question
up vote 2 down vote accepted

You don't need the enclosing parentheses, test itself would suffice:

if test -e "$NAME"; then

The (()) is for arithmetic comparison operations.

test is synonymous to [ command, so you can use:

if [ -e "$NAME" ]; then

too.

Also some shell has the [[ keyword:

if [[ -e "$NAME" ]]; then
share|improve this answer
    
Thank you. That works for me. Is this only for test? Because I am able to do something like if(($# != 2));then....and the parentheses is required for me (or atleast it doesn't work without it). – Andrew M Mar 30 at 3:27
    
@AndrewM Check my edits.. – heemayl Mar 30 at 3:32
    
Thank you for the explanation. My book does not cover this well at all. – Andrew M Mar 30 at 3:41

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