How do I check to see if a file exists within a directory

Question

I what to prompt a user to enter name of a file, read that into a variable, and use that variable to check if the valued enter is in fact a legimate file.

How would I do this in a ksh script? Thanks

Answer 1

You know already how to read user input , here's the new part:

It's done with test(1) :

test -f $theFile && echo exists

It also has the alternate name [ which is most often used in if or while expressions:

if [ -f $theFile ]
then
    echo exists
fi

Please refer to the above link (or alternatively the manual page).