RE: bash if file exists

["Eric Chadbourne" <user=1528@nabble.blu.org>]

 > Ben Eisenbraun wrote: 
> > On Thu, Apr 03, 2008 at 06:55:36PM -0400, Derek Martin wrote: 
> >> Which can be further simplified to: 
> >> 
> >> if ls *.zip >/dev/null 2>&1; then 
> > 
> > That's probably more elegant on some level than my $?.   
> Derek's test 
> > of the ls exit status embedded in the if statement jogged my memory 
> > for another 
> > method: 
> > 
> > ls *.zip > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo 'zips!' || echo 'zippo!' 
> > 
> > There ends up being a tradeoff between brevity and 
> legibility at some 
> > point, but I don't think we've hit it yet.  Anyone got a 
> shorter one? 
> > 
> > :-) 
> > 
> > -b 
> 
> Hey, I like that!  Much cleaner than my "find" approach. 
> 
> I didn't realize that ls returns a non-zero return code when 
> nothing found.  Neat trick! 
> 
> DR