Bash - check if file is readable

In this article, we would like to show you how to check if file is readable using Bash.

Practical example

In this example, we use test command alias with -r option to check if file under the path is readable.

Example script.sh file:

#!/bin/bash

path="/path/to/file.txt"

if [ -r "$path" ]; then
    echo "The file is readable."
fi

Note: this approach should be used in POSIX shells where other solutions may not work.

Run in command line:

./script.sh

Example output:

The file is readable.

Altermative notation

1. test based solution

#!/bin/bash

path="/path/to/file.txt"

if test -r "$path"; then
    echo "The file is readable."
fi

Note: [ ] notation is shorthand of test command.

2. [[ ]] based solution

#!/bin/bash

path="/path/to/file.txt"

if [[ -r "$path" ]]; then
    echo "The file is readable."
fi

Note: [[ ]] notation is like extended test command, adding additional features (e.g. regular expressions).

See also

1. Bash - check if file is executable

2. Bash - check if file is writable

3. Bash - check if file is socket

4. Bash - check if file is not zero size