check if file exists on remote host with ssh

Question

I would like to check if a certain file exists on the remote host  I tried this     if   ssh user localhost -p 19999 -e  home user Dropbox path Research and Development Puffer and Traps Repeaters Network UBC LOGS log1349544129 tar bz2   then echo  okidoke   else  not okay   fi -sh  syntax error  unexpected  else   expecting  then

User · Answer

I wanted also to check if a remote file exist but with RSH. I have tried the previous solutions but they didn't work with RSH.

Finally, I did I short function which works fine:

function existRemoteFile ()
{
REMOTE=$1
FILE=$2
RESULT=$(rsh -l user $REMOTE  "test -e $FILE && echo \"0\" || echo \"1\"")
if [ $RESULT -eq 0 ]
then
    return 0
else
    return 1
fi
}

User · Answer

You can specify the shell to be used by the remote host locally   echo  echo  Bash version    BASH VERSION      ssh -q localhost bash   And be careful to  single- quote the variables you wish to be expanded by the remote host  otherwise variable expansion will be done by your local shell     example for local   remote variable expansion   echo      -     i      amp  amp  echo  Interactive     echo  Not interactive          ssh -q localhost bash echo      -     i      amp  amp  echo  Interactive     echo  Not interactive          ssh -q localhost bash     So  to check if a certain file exists on the remote host you can do the following   host  localhost     localhost as test case file     bash history  if  echo  test -f     file     amp  amp  exit 0    exit 1    ssh -q    host   sh   then  if  echo     -f     file        amp  amp  exit 0    exit 1    ssh -q    host   bash   then    echo exists else    echo does not exist fi

User · Answer

In addition to the answers above  there s the shorthand way to do it   ssh -q  HOST    -f  FILE PATH     amp  amp  echo  File exists     echo  File does not exist     -q is quiet mode  it will suppress warnings and messages    As  Mat mentioned  one advantage of testing like this is that you can easily swap out the -f for any test operator you like  -nt  -d  -s etc      Test Operators  http   tldp org LDP abs html fto html

User · Answer

ssh -q  HOST    -f  FILE PATH     amp  amp  echo  File exists    The above will run the echo command on the machine you re running the ssh command from  To get the remote server to run the command   ssh -q  HOST       -f  FILE PATH     amp  amp  touch  FILE PATH

User · Answer

one line  proper quoting  ssh remote host test -f   path to file   amp  amp  echo found    echo not found

User · Answer

Here is a simple approach      bin bash USE IP  -o StrictHostKeyChecking no username 192 168 1 2   FILE NAME  home user file txt  SSH PASS  sshpass -p password-for-remote-machine   if  SSH PASS ssh  USE IP stat  FILE NAME   gt   dev null 2  gt   amp 1             then                     echo  File exists              else                     echo  File does not exist   fi   You need to install sshpass on your machine to work it

User · Answer

On CentOS machine  the oneliner bash that worked for me was   if ssh  lt servername gt   stat  lt filename gt   gt   dev null 2 gt  amp 1   then echo  file exists   else echo  file doesnt exits   fi   It needed I O redirection  as the top answer  as well as quotes around the command to be run on remote

User · Answer

This also works    if ssh user ip    -s  path file name     then    status RECEIVED     else    status MISSING     fi

User · Answer

You re missing  s  The general syntax if you put it all in one line would be   if thing   then       else       fi   The thing can be pretty much anything that returns an exit code  The then branch is taken if that thing returns 0  the else branch otherwise     isn t syntax  it s the test program  check out ls  bin    it actually exists  man test for the docs  ndash  although can also have a built-in version with different additional features   which is used to test various common conditions on files and variables   Note that    on the other hand is syntax and is handled by your shell  if it supports it    For your case  you don t want to use test directly  you want to test something on the remote host  So try something like   if ssh user host test -e   file    then       else       fi

User · Answer

Test if a file exists   HOST  example com  FILE   path to file   if ssh  HOST  test -e  FILE   then     echo  File exists   else     echo  File does not exist   fi   And the opposite  test if a file does not exist   HOST  example com  FILE   path to file   if   ssh  HOST  test -e  FILE   then     echo  File does not exist   else     echo  File exists   fi

User · Answer

Can t get much simpler than this     ssh host  test -e  path to file  if      -eq 0    then       your file exists fi   As suggested by dimo414  this can be collapsed to   if ssh host  test -e  path to file   then       your file exists fi

[linux] check if file exists on remote host with ssh

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