[solved]variable using ~ from a file

Question

To put the things in short, I am trying to share some files/directory using quickserve and want to pass the file list thro' another file. before actual sharing I am trying to  test the actual file's existence but it fails with ~ / $HOME options.
File : ToExport.txt
contents:
~/Documents/File1.dot
~/Documents/File2.ods
/mnt/backup
the said file is passed as an argument to the bash script
Test function ...
for isvalid in $(cat "$1")
do
if [ -e "$isvalid" ]
then
echo "$isvalid passed for sharing"
else
echo "$isvalid does not exisits"
exit 4
fi
done
This fails. If I replace ~ with actual path it works.
(It may be easy to replace the entire list with the actual path by the simple search & replace funtion but the indention is to use the short form  ~ or $HOME instead of typing full path.
your inputs/correction are welcome
Last edited by kgas (2010-09-28 17:11:41)

Answer 1

This should work:
#!/bin/bash
#: Description : Checks file list to see files contained exist/are empty
fileList=/home/tom/fileList
## Go through each file in the fileList
while read aFile
do
## expand tildes (~)
eval aFile=$aFile
## check file exists
if [ -e $aFile ]
then
## check file is non-empty
if [ -s $aFile ]
then
printf "%s is a file.\n" $aFile
else
printf "%s is an empty file.\n" $aFile
fi
else ## file does not exist
printf "%s does not exist.\n" $aFile
fi
done < <( cat $fileList )
That code is a little more readable too. You where using the variable "isValid" for a file name.
Last edited by BaconPie (2010-09-21 10:29:51)