Bash - alternative for: ls | grep

Question

I use the following pipe as variable in a script:

match=$( ls | grep -i "$search")

this is then used in an if statement :

if [ "$match" ]; then
    echo "matches found"
else
    echo "no matches found"
fi

what would be an alternative if I did not want to use find? ShellCheck recommends:

ls /directory/target_file_pattern

but I do not get the syntax right to get the same result. also I want no output when there are no matches for the if statement to work.

Answer 1

If you just want to tell if there exist any matches with bash you could use the builtin compgen like so:

if compgen -G 'glob_pattern_like_your_grep' >/dev/null; then
    echo "matches found"
else
    echo "no matches found"
fi

if you want to operate on the files that are matched, find is usually the right tool for the job:

find . -name 'glob_pattern_like_your_grep' -exec 'your command to operate on each file that matches'

the key though is that you have to use glob patterns , not regex type patterns.

If your find supports it, you might be able to match a regex like

find . -regex 'pattern'

and use that in either the if or with -exec

Answer 2

Use find :

match="$(find . -path "*${search}*" -printf "." | wc -c)"

$match will contain the number of matches. You can check it like this:

if [ "${match}" -gt 0 ] ; then
    echo "${match} files found"
else
    echo "No files found"
fi