[Linux 文章收集] Use BASH nullglob To Verify *.c Files Exists or Not In a Directory

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Introduction
Can you explain me usage of nullglob variable under BASH? How do I check for any *.c files in any directory?

BASH shell has the following two special variables to control pathname expansion. Bash scans each word for the characters *, ?, and [. If one of these characters appears, then the word is regarded as a pattern, and replaced with an alphabetically sorted list of file names matching the pattern.

- nullglob

If set, bash allows patterns which match no files to expand to a null string, rather than themselves. This is useful to check for any *.mp3 or *.cpp files in directory.

- dotglob

If set, bash includes filenames beginning with a . in the results of pathname expansion.

How do I set and unset nullglob variable?
Use shopt command to toggle the values of variables. The -s option enable nullglob effects and the -u option disable nullglob option.

# shopt -s nullglob // enable 
# shopt -u nullglob // disable

Here is sample shell script to see if *.mp3 exists or not in a directory:
- listFE.sh

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1. #!/bin/sh  
2. old=$(pwd)  
3. [ $# -lt 2 ] && echo -e "\t[Info] Give arg1=Folder path; arg2=File extension!\n" && exit 1  
4. [ -d $1 ] && cd $1 || exit 2  
5.   
6. shopt -s nullglob  
7. found=0  
8. for i in *.$2; do  
9.     echo "File $i found" # or take other action  
10.     found=1  
11. done  
12. shopt -u nullglob  
13. [ $found -eq 0 ] && echo "Directory is empty"  
14. cd $old  

One usage example:

// List all file with extension .mp3 under folder 'empty'
# ./listFE.sh empty mp3
File test.mp3 found

Without nullglob i will expand to *. only if there are no files in given directory. You can also use GNU find command to find out if directory is empty or not i.e. check for any *.c files in a directory called ~/project/editor:

// -maxdepth 0: Do not scan for sub directories.
// -empty : File is empty and is either a regular file or a directory.
// -exec echo {} directory is empty. \; : Display message if directory is empty.
# find ~/project/editor -maxdepth 0 -empty -exec echo {} directory is empty. \;