How do I check to see if a file exists on a remote server using shell

Question

I have done a lot of searching and I can't seem to find out how to do this using a shell script. Basically, I am copying files down from remote servers and I want to do something else if it doesn't exist. I have an array below, but I tried to reference it directly, but it is still returning false.

I am brand new at this, so please be kind :)

declare -a array1=('[email protected]');

for i in "${array1[@]}"
do
   if [ -f "$i:/home/user/directory/file" ];
   then
     do stuff
   else
     Do other stuff
   fi
done

Answer 1

Try this:

ssh -q $HOST [[ -f $i:/home/user/directory/file ]] && echo "File exists" || echo "File does not exist";

or like this:

if ssh $HOST stat $FILE_PATH \> /dev/null 2\>\&1
then
  echo "File exists"
else
  echo "File not exist"
fi