testpattern=whatever*
ok=0
for tmp in $testpattern
do
if [ -e $tmp ] ; then ok=1 ; fi
break
done

if [ $ok -eq 1 ]
then
echo “Matches”
else
echo “Does not match”
fi

All of the above was useful information, but I can’t see how anything beats the for loop, I was doing for files in `ls filename.0*` and I just needed to modify it so it didn’t use ls to get the file list. Not sure why I started out using ls, but I’m guessing I had a syntax issue until I used your example.

If what you want is reasonably terse script that works entirely with bash builtins and doesn’t fail unless bash can’t expand the glob without blowing out its command line buffer, use nullglob in a subshell:

if test -n “$(shopt -s nullglob; cd /tmp; echo *.cache)”
then
    echo Cache files exist
else
    echo No cache files
fi

If you’d rather know that your script will always do the right thing, you don’t mind launching one external process to do the test and you want portability to non-bash shells, use find:

if test -n “$(find /tmp -maxdepth 1 -name ‘*.cache’ -print -quit)”
then
    echo Cache files exist
else
    echo No cache files
fi

if [ "$files" != "0" ]
then
echo “Cache files exist: do something with them”
else
echo “No cache files…”
fi

clear
echo “Enter a file to see if it exists:”
read file
echo “searching system……”
sleep 1
locate $file > file.finder
if [ $file != "1" ];then
echo “$file EXISTS, IN THESE PLACES:”
cat file.finder
sleep 4
rm file.finder
else
echo “$file doesn’t exist!”
fi

set -x

j=0

cd /Path/of/the/file

Today=`date ‘+%b %e’`

ls -lrt a*access*| grep “$Today” |awk -F” ” ‘{print $9}’ > temp

for i in `cat temp`;do

grep “500″ $i |awk -F” ” ‘{print $9}’ > fivehund_errorfile

File_time=`ls -lrt fivehund_errorfile | awk -F” ” ‘{print $6 ” ” $7 ” ” $8}’`

Time_now=`date ‘+%b %e %H:%M’`

#if [ "$File_time" == "$Time_now" ];

#if [ "$File_time" == "$Time_now" -a test -s fivehund_errorfile ];
#if [ $File_time == $Time_now ] -a [ test -s fivehund_errorfile ];
#if [ $File_time == $Time_now -a test -s fivehund_errorfile ];
#if [ [$File_time == $Time_now] -a [test -s fivehund_errorfile] ];
if [ $File_time == $Time_now ] && [ test -s fivehund_errorfile ];
then

j=1

echo “500 found in $i file”

else

echo “not found in $i file”

fi
done

getting the messg as
++ ‘[' Jun 15 16:54 == Jun 15 16:54 ']‘
./five_check.sh: [: too many arguments

can some one help me to fix this error/warning

for i in filename*; do FOUND=$i;break;done
if [ $FOUND == 'filename*' ]; then
echo “No files found matching wildcard.”
else
echo “Files found matching wildcard.”
fi