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")  

Answer 1

In addition to the answers above, there's the shorthand way to do it:

ssh -q $HOST [[ -f $FILE_PATH ]] && 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

Answer 2

Here is a simple approach:

#!/bin/bash USE_IP='-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no [email protected]'  FILE_NAME=/home/user/file.txt  SSH_PASS='sshpass -p password-for-remote-machine'  if $SSH_PASS ssh $USE_IP stat $FILE_NAME \> /dev/null 2\>\&1             then                     echo "File exists"             else                     echo "File does not exist"  fi 

You need to install sshpass on your machine to work it.