If I try to use Visual Studio Code (on macOS 10.15) to edit my crontab, it opens an empty file without the contents of my crontab.
$ VISUAL='code' crontab -e
crontab: no changes made to crontab
I didn't actually expect this to work (without -w) but include it for completeness. But when I add the -w it still fails.
$ VISUAL="code -w" crontab -e
crontab: code -w: No such file or directory
crontab: "code -w" exited with status 1
It occurred to me that there may be some weirdness with quoting, but neither single quotes nor the following fixed anything:
$ function codew() {
function> code -w "$1"
function> }
$ export VISUAL='codew'
$ crontab -e
The problem seems to be that the crontab's tempfile is not actually present. But how do I solve this? How can I use VS Code to edit crontabs?
Create a file touch ~/code-wait.sh:
#!/bin/bash
OPTS=""
if [[ "$1" == /tmp/* ]]; then
OPTS="-w"
fi
/usr/local/bin/code ${OPTS:-} -a "$#"
Make this file executable:
chmod 755 ~/code-wait.sh
Add to your .bashrc or .bash_profile or .zshrc:
export VISUAL=~/code-wait.sh
export EDITOR=~/code-wait.sh
Run command:
EDITOR='code' crontab -e
here the setting works for me.
.bashrc
## vscode
export VISUAL=/path/to/code-wait.sh
export EDITOR=/path/to/code-wait.sh
code-wait.sh
#!/bin/sh
code -w $*
That is quite a complex issue because there is no way to detect which tool calls the preferred editor. The TTY is the same and no environment variables can help.
Still, I was able to come up with a solution that enables the foreground mode (wait) for temporary files. IMHO, most if not all tools that use external editors and are waiting for them to save the file do use temporary files.
Full script is at https://github.com/ssbarnea/harem/blob/master/bin/edit but I will include here the main snippet:
#!/bin/bash
OPTS=""
if [[ "$1" == /tmp/* ]]; then
OPTS="-w"
fi
/usr/local/bin/code ${OPTS:-} -a "$#"
I have a bunch of projects in my ~/Documents. I work almost exclusively in python, so these are basically all python projects. Each one, e.g. ~/Documents/foo has its own virtualenv, ~/Documents/foo/venv (they're always called venv). Whenever I switch between projects, which is ~10 times a day, I do
deactivate
cd ..
cd foo
source venv/bin/activate
I've reached the point where I'm sick of typing deactivate and source venv/bin/activate. I'm looking for a way to just cd ../foo and have the virtualenv operations handled for me.
I'm familiar with VirtualEnvWrapper which is a little heavy-handed in my opinion. It seems to move all your virtualenvs somewhere else, and adds a little more complexity than it removes, as far as I can tell. (Dissenting opinions welcome!)
I am not too familiar with shell scripting. If you can recommend a low-maintenance script to add to my ~/.zshrc that accomplishes this, that would be more than enough, but from some quick googling, I haven't found such a script.
I'm a zsh/oh-my-zsh user. oh-my-zsh doesn't seem to have a plugin for this. The best answer to this question would be someone contributing an oh-my-zsh plugin which does this. (Which I might do if the answers here are lackluster.
Add following in your .bashrc or .zshrc
function cd() {
builtin cd "$#"
if [[ -z "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]] ; then
## If env folder is found then activate the vitualenv
if [[ -d ./.env ]] ; then
source ./.env/bin/activate
fi
else
## check the current folder belong to earlier VIRTUAL_ENV folder
# if yes then do nothing
# else deactivate
parentdir="$(dirname "$VIRTUAL_ENV")"
if [[ "$PWD"/ != "$parentdir"/* ]] ; then
deactivate
fi
fi
}
This code will not deactivate the virtualenv even if someone goes into subfolder. Inspired by answers of #agnul and #Gilles.
If the virtualenv is made by pipenv, then please consider this wiki page.
Furthermore, for added security please consider direnv.
Put something like this in your .zshrc
function cd() {
if [[ -d ./venv ]] ; then
deactivate
fi
builtin cd $1
if [[ -d ./venv ]] ; then
. ./venv/bin/activate
fi
}
Edit: As noted in comments cd-ing into a subfolder of the current virtual env would deactivate it. One idea could be to deactivate the current env only if cd-ing into a new one, like
function cd() {
builtin cd $1
if [[ -n "$VIRTUAL_ENV" && -d ./venv ]] ; then
deactivate
. ./venv/bin/activate
fi
}
that could still be improved, maybe turning it into a "prompt command" or attempting some prefix matching on the folder names to check there's a virtual env somewhere up the path, but my shell-fu is not good enough.
You should try something like autoenv if not direnv.
The first one is considered to be "lightweight", while the second one "simply, higher quality software", listening respectively to each one's author, talking about the other one's project. Thus, they seem to me fairly good options, to try both!
Anyway, both have been tested on zsh shells.
In particular, autoenv is really simple to use, after installing it:
$ git clone git://github.com/inishchith/autoenv.git ~/.autoenv
$ echo 'source ~/.autoenv/activate.sh' >> ~/.bashrc
just "follow the white rabbit " and try for example
$ mkdir project
$ echo "echo 'whoa'" > project/.env
$ cd project
whoa
"If a directory contains a .env file, it will automatically be executed when you cd into it. When enabled (set AUTOENV_ENABLE_LEAVE to a non-null string), if a directory contains a .env.leave file, it will automatically be executed when you leave it."
Have a look at https://github.com/inishchith/autoenv for more detailed instructions!...
Rather than writing a custom script you could use direnv. It's not a zsh specific solution (for that you could try zsh-autoenv), but is well-maintained and easy to use with zsh. Once you've installed it, you'd want to put eval "$(direnv hook zsh)" at the end of your .zshrc. At that point you can do:
$ source ~/.zshrc
$ cd foo
$ echo "layout python" > .envrc
direnv: error .envrc is blocked. Run `direnv allow` to approve its content.
$ direnv allow
direnv: loading .envrc
direnv: export +VIRTUAL_ENV ~PATH
Now you should be in your virtualenv. You can test by running pip freeze to see that your virtualenv specific packages are installed. To deactivate
$ cd ..
direnv: unloading
By far the easiest option (in 2019+) is to add virtualenvwrapper into your ~/.zshrc plugins
For example:
plugins=(
git pip python brew virtualenvwrapper
)
For anyone using (or considering to use) pyenv this can be achieved very conveniently using the pyenv-virtualenv plugin as described here.
Basically you simply add a .python-version file to the directory in which the name of the virtualenv is specified.
For posterity: I used #MS_'s solution but ran into the problem where cding directly from one project to another deactivates the old virtualenv but doesn't activate the new one. This is a slightly modified version of that solution which solves this problem:
# auto activate virtualenv
# Modified solution based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45216663/how-to-automatically-activate-virtualenvs-when-cding-into-a-directory/56309561#56309561
function cd() {
builtin cd "$#"
## Default path to virtualenv in your projects
DEFAULT_ENV_PATH="./env"
## If env folder is found then activate the vitualenv
function activate_venv() {
if [[ -f "${DEFAULT_ENV_PATH}/bin/activate" ]] ; then
source "${DEFAULT_ENV_PATH}/bin/activate"
echo "Activating ${VIRTUAL_ENV}"
fi
}
if [[ -z "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]] ; then
activate_venv
else
## check the current folder belong to earlier VIRTUAL_ENV folder
# if yes then do nothing
# else deactivate then run a new env folder check
parentdir="$(dirname ${VIRTUAL_ENV})"
if [[ "$PWD"/ != "$parentdir"/* ]] ; then
echo "Deactivating ${VIRTUAL_ENV}"
deactivate
activate_venv
fi
fi
}
This is a zsh only solution.
This is an improvement over daveruinseverything's answer which is an improvement over MS_'s answer.
We are using precmd hook instead of overwriting cd.
We have added another extra feature. Suppose the directory structure is
├── .venv
│ ├── bin
│ │ └── activate
├── subdir
│ ├── subdir1
│ │ ├── subdir2
│ │ │ └── test2.txt
│ │ └── test1.txt
│ └── test.txt
└── testing.py
If you now open new terminal in subdir2, or directly cd to subdir2 from other place, it will activate the venv.
The solution is:
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
add-zsh-hook precmd automatically_activate_python_venv
function automatically_activate_python_env() {
if [[ -z $VIRTUAL_ENV ]] ; then
activate_venv
else
parentdir="$(dirname ${VIRTUAL_ENV})"
if [[ "$PWD"/ != "$parentdir"/* ]] ; then
deactivate
activate_venv
fi
fi
}
function activate_venv() {
local d n
d=$PWD
until false
do
if [[ -f $d/.venv/bin/activate ]] ; then
source $d/.venv/bin/activate
break
fi
d=${d%/*}
# d="$(dirname "$d")"
[[ $d = *\/* ]] || break
done
}
that is the solution without cd'ing, with zsh set to setop auto_cd w'll be able to change directories without cd, just type directory name and hit enter.
it is anhence of above solution:
# auto activate virtualenv
# Modified solution based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45216663/how-to-automatically-activate-virtualenvs-when-cding-into-a-directory/56309561#56309561
function auto_active_env() {
## Default path to virtualenv in your projects
DEFAULT_ENV_PATH="./env"
## If env folder is found then activate the vitualenv
function activate_venv() {
if [[ -f "${DEFAULT_ENV_PATH}/bin/activate" ]] ; then
source "${DEFAULT_ENV_PATH}/bin/activate"
echo "Activating ${VIRTUAL_ENV}"
fi
}
if [[ -z "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]] ; then
activate_venv
else
## check the current folder belong to earlier VIRTUAL_ENV folder
# if yes then do nothing
# else deactivate then run a new env folder check
parentdir="$(dirname ${VIRTUAL_ENV})"
if [[ "$PWD"/ != "$parentdir"/* ]] ; then
echo "Deactivating ${VIRTUAL_ENV}"
deactivate
activate_venv
fi
fi
}
chpwd_functions=(${chpwd_functions[#]} "auto_active_env")
Similar to Jake's answer but supports cding from one virtualenv to another. In this case it deactivates the old virtualenv then activates the new one.
function cd() {
builtin cd "$#"
if [[ ! -z "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]] ; then
# If the current directory is not contained
# within the venv parent directory -> deactivate the venv.
cur_dir=$(pwd -P)
venv_dir="$(dirname "$VIRTUAL_ENV")"
if [[ "$cur_dir"/ != "$venv_dir"/* ]] ; then
deactivate
fi
fi
if [[ -z "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]] ; then
# If config file is found -> activate the vitual environment
venv_cfg_filepath=$(find . -maxdepth 2 -type f -name 'pyvenv.cfg' 2> /dev/null)
if [[ -z "$venv_cfg_filepath" ]]; then
return # no config file found
fi
venv_filepath=$(cut -d '/' -f -2 <<< ${venv_cfg_filepath})
if [[ -d "$venv_filepath" ]] ; then
source "${venv_filepath}"/bin/activate
fi
fi
}
Here is (yet) another solution to automatically activate a virtual environment; it's based on a number of the answers already posted here.
This will work for any Virtual Environment name or directory (not just ./env, ./venv, etc.). Also supports subdirectories, as well as cd-ing into symlinks of virtual environment (parent) folders.
This code searches for a pyvenv.cfg file instead of a particular named directory. If one is found within a subdirectory of the current folder, the environment is automatically activated. Once inside a virtual environment, that state is retained until you move out of the parent virtual environment directory, at which point the environment is deactivated.
Place this inside your .bashrc or .bash_profile.
function cd() {
builtin cd "$#"
if [[ -z "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]] ; then
# If config file is found -> activate the vitual environment
venv_cfg_filepath=$(find . -maxdepth 2 -type f -name 'pyvenv.cfg' 2> /dev/null)
if [[ -z "$venv_cfg_filepath" ]]; then
return # no config file found
fi
venv_filepath=$(cut -d '/' -f -2 <<< ${venv_cfg_filepath})
if [[ -d "$venv_filepath" ]] ; then
source "${venv_filepath}"/bin/activate
fi
else
# If the current directory is not contained
# within the venv parent directory -> deactivate the venv.
cur_dir=$(pwd -P)
venv_dir="$(dirname "$VIRTUAL_ENV")"
if [[ "$cur_dir"/ != "$venv_dir"/* ]] ; then
deactivate
fi
fi
}
Personally I think it's an improvement on a lot of the solutions here, since it should work for any virtual environment
This is my solution, which:
checks if already at the currently active venv, and do nothing in that case
if there is a venv folder, deactivate the active one if there is one
activate the new venv whatever if there was an old one or not.
In my bash_aliases:
function cd() {
builtin cd "$#"
if [ $(dirname "$VIRTUAL_ENV") == $(pwd) ] ; then
# Already at the active virtual env
return
fi
if [[ -d ./venv ]] ; then
if type deactivate > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
printf "Deactivating virtualenv %s\n" "$VIRTUAL_ENV"
deactivate
fi
source ./venv/bin/activate
printf "Setting up virtualenv %s\n" "$VIRTUAL_ENV"
fi
}
This is my solution:
If VIRTUAL_ENV is not set then:
Check if we're inside a virtual env
If yes, then activate it
Else (VIRTUAL_ENV is defined), check that the current folder starts with $VIRTUAL_ENV (removing the /venv part) and verify that the deactivate command exists
Deactivate teh environment
This is the script:
function cd() {
builtin cd $1
if [[ -z "${VIRTUAL_ENV}" ]]; then
if [[ -d ./venv && -f ./venv/bin/activate ]]; then
source ./venv/bin/activate
fi
elif [[ ! "$(pwd)" == ${VIRTUAL_ENV:0:n-5}* && ! -z "$(command -v deactivate)" ]]; then
deactivate
fi
}
Note: You need to add this to .bashrc. If it doesn't work, check if your .profile is not overriding your command (it happened to me)
Based on #MS_'s solution:
function cd() {
builtin cd "$#"
## If env folder is found then activate the vitualenv
if [[ -d ./venv ]] ; then
source ./venv/bin/activate
fi
if [[ -n "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]] ; then
## check the current folder belong to earlier VIRTUAL_ENV folder
# if yes then do nothing
# else deactivate
parentdir="$(dirname "$VIRTUAL_ENV")"
if [[ "$PWD"/ != "$parentdir"/* ]] ; then
deactivate
fi
fi
}
I've used direnv in the past, as others have mentioned. Lyft use aactivator for this exact scenario.
Once the venv is built it must be activated (added to $PATH). We use aactivator to automatically activate the venv each time a user enters the service directory and deactivates as they leave.
I tried direnv as suggested by others but found it a bit too opinionated and it didn't exactly do what I wanted.
The solution below is for fish shell users only. Also, it assumes a pyproject.toml file and stdlib's venv, but that can be easily changed.
The fish shell has the concept of event handlers so you can easily define a function that gets run whenever an "event" gets triggered (Unix signals, environment variables changing, etc). See this a blog post for a quick introduction.
Add the following to your ~/.config/fish/config.fish (and modify as needed):
function venv_activate --on-variable PWD
if test ! -e pyproject.toml
if test -n "$VIRTUAL_ENV"
deactivate
end
return
end
# echo "Found pyproject.toml"
if test ! -d .venv
# echo "Creating $(python -V) venv"
python -m venv .venv --prompt (basename (pwd))
end
source .venv/bin/activate.fish
end
As a side note, the above works nicely with pyenv's .python-version files as well.
You don't have to execute deactivate on the directory where venv exists. When virtual environment is active you can deactivate anywhere.
So, say you have 2 venvs, <somepath>/project1/venv and <somepath>/project2/venv, and currently project1/venv is active.
If you want to switch project2/venv, do below.
cd project2
deactivate && source ./venv/bin/activate
It will deactivate previous one and activate current one.
Now the above you can just make an alias, or shell function in ~/.zshrc as below:
function avenv(){
deactivate
source ./venv/bin/activate
}
go the path where you want to activate the venv and just run avenv.
Python venv has a feature called --prompt, while creating venv you can mention the prompt, so that in the terminal you will understand which venv is active.
python3 -m venv venv --prompt PROJECT1_VENV
Now in terminal, it will come as (PROJECT1_VENV) -> ~
You can use a zsh hook function that runs whenever you change directories. For example, you could add this to your ~/.zshrc:
# Define a function to activate/deactivate virtualenvs based on the current directory
function venv_cd() {
# Check if the current directory has a venv subdirectory
if [[ -d venv ]]; then
# If yes, activate it if it's not already active
if [[ "$VIRTUAL_ENV" != "$PWD/venv" ]]; then
source venv/bin/activate
fi
else
# If no, deactivate the current virtualenv if any
if [[ -n "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]]; then
deactivate
fi
fi
}
Add the function to the chpwd hook, which runs after every cd
add-zsh-hook chpwd venv_cd
Optionally, run the function once at the start of the session
venv_cd
This should automatically activate the virtualenv in the current directory if it exists, or deactivate it if you move to a directory without one.
Here is an alternative which sets an env variable when cd'ing into a virtualenv directory and checks if an active subdir is a child-directory of said virtualenv.
This will also deactivate when exiting or cd'ing to another directory.
This assumes you're using Pyenv to manage your Python installations, however you can change the pyvenv.cfg notation to anything else.
function cd() {
builtin cd "$#"
if [[ -f ./pyvenv.cfg ]] ; then
export VENV_CURRENT=$PWD
source ./bin/activate
else
if [[ $(env | fgrep VENV_CURRENT) ]]; then
if ! [[ $(pwd | fgrep $VENV_CURRENT) ]]; then
unset VENV_CURRENT
deactivate
fi
fi
fi
}
I suppose I could compare the number of files in the source directory to the number of files in the target directory as cp progresses, or perhaps do it with folder size instead? I tried to find examples, but all bash progress bars seem to be written for copying single files. I want to copy a bunch of files (or a directory, if the former is not possible).
You can also use rsync instead of cp like this:
rsync -Pa source destination
Which will give you a progress bar and estimated time of completion. Very handy.
To show a progress bar while doing a recursive copy of files & folders & subfolders (including links and file attributes), you can use gcp (easily installed in Ubuntu and Debian by running "sudo apt-get install gcp"):
gcp -rf SRC DEST
Here is the typical output while copying a large folder of files:
Copying 1.33 GiB 73% |##################### | 230.19 M/s ETA: 00:00:07
Notice that it shows just one progress bar for the whole operation, whereas if you want a single progress bar per file, you can use rsync:
rsync -ah --progress SRC DEST
You may have a look at the tool vcp. Thats a simple copy tool with two progress bars: One for the current file, and one for overall.
EDIT
Here is the link to the sources: http://members.iinet.net.au/~lynx/vcp/
Manpage can be found here: http://linux.die.net/man/1/vcp
Most distributions have a package for it.
Here another solution: Use the tool bar
You could invoke it like this:
#!/bin/bash
filesize=$(du -sb ${1} | awk '{ print $1 }')
tar -cf - -C ${1} ./ | bar --size ${filesize} | tar -xf - -C ${2}
You have to go the way over tar, and it will be inaccurate on small files. Also you must take care that the target directory exists. But it is a way.
My preferred option is Advanced Copy, as it uses the original cp source files.
$ wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-8.21.tar.xz
$ tar xvJf coreutils-8.21.tar.xz
$ cd coreutils-8.21/
$ wget --no-check-certificate wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jarun/advcpmv/master/advcpmv-0.8-8.32.patch
$ patch -p1 -i advcpmv-0.8-8.32.patch
$ ./configure
$ make
The new programs are now located in src/cp and src/mv. You may choose to replace your existing commands:
$ sudo cp src/cp /usr/local/bin/cp
$ sudo cp src/mv /usr/local/bin/mv
Then you can use cp as usual, or specify -g to show the progress bar:
$ cp -g src dest
A simple unix way is to go to the destination directory and do watch -n 5 du -s . Perhaps make it more pretty by showing as a bar . This can help in environments where you have just the standard unix utils and no scope of installing additional files . du-sh is the key , watch is to just do every 5 seconds.
Pros : Works on any unix system Cons : No Progress Bar
To add another option, you can use cpv. It uses pv to imitate the usage of cp.
It works like pv but you can use it to recursively copy directories
You can get it here
There's a tool pv to do this exact thing: http://www.ivarch.com/programs/pv.shtml
There's a ubuntu version in apt
How about something like
find . -type f | pv -s $(find . -type f | wc -c) | xargs -i cp {} --parents /DEST/$(dirname {})
It finds all the files in the current directory, pipes that through PV while giving PV an estimated size so the progress meter works and then piping that to a CP command with the --parents flag so the DEST path matches the SRC path.
One problem I have yet to overcome is that if you issue this command
find /home/user/test -type f | pv -s $(find . -type f | wc -c) | xargs -i cp {} --parents /www/test/$(dirname {})
the destination path becomes /www/test/home/user/test/....FILES... and I am unsure how to tell the command to get rid of the '/home/user/test' part. That why I have to run it from inside the SRC directory.
Check the source code for progress_bar in the below git repository of mine
https://github.com/Kiran-Bose/supreme
Also try custom bash script package supreme to verify how progress bar work with cp and mv comands
Functionality overview
(1)Open Apps
----Firefox
----Calculator
----Settings
(2)Manage Files
----Search
----Navigate
----Quick access
|----Select File(s)
|----Inverse Selection
|----Make directory
|----Make file
|----Open
|----Copy
|----Move
|----Delete
|----Rename
|----Send to Device
|----Properties
(3)Manage Phone
----Move/Copy from phone
----Move/Copy to phone
----Sync folders
(4)Manage USB
----Move/Copy from USB
----Move/Copy to USB
There is command progress, https://github.com/Xfennec/progress, coreutils progress viewer.
Just run progress in another terminal to see the copy/move progress. For continuous monitoring use -M flag.
I'm trying to write a command in my bash_profile to replace the default emacs command that will emacs a file if it exists, and if it doesn't exist, will copy a template to the new file and then emacs that.
What I attempted was:
function emacs()
{
if [ ! -f ${1} ]; then \
cp /FILEPATH/template.sh ${1}; fi;
builtin emacs ${1}
}
but the error I'm getting is "-bash: builtin: emacs: not a shell builtin"
How do I create a new function to replace the emacs command and then call the original emacs command within that function if emacs is not a builtin command?
You want command emacs, not builtin emacs. See help command.
As an aside, doesn't emacs have some sort of internal support for new-file templates? You might want to take a look at this: http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TemplatesMode. (Disclaimer: I don't use emacs; this was just one of the first pages I found while searching for "emacs new file template.)
(edit: sorry, command emacs in the other answer is better, use that.)
builtin only works for actual shell builtins like test, read, ...
Use the explicit path to emacs instead:
function emacs()
{
if [ ! -f ${1} ]; then \
cp /FILEPATH/template.sh ${1}; fi;
/usr/bin/emacs ${1}
}
If I have a basic .sh file containing the following script code:
#!/bin/sh
rm -rf "MyFolder"
How do I make this running script file display results to the terminal that will indicate if the directory removal was successful?
You don't really need to make it say it was successful. You could have it say something only on error ✖, and then silence means success ✔.
That's how the Unix philosophy works:
The rule of silence, also referred to as the silence is golden rule, is an important part of the Unix philosophy that states that when a program has nothing surprising, interesting or useful to say, it should say nothing. It means that well-behaved programs should treat their users' attention and concentration as being valuable and thus perform their tasks as unobtrusively as possible. That is, silence in itself is a virtue. http://www.linfo.org/rule_of_silence.html
That's the way rm itself behaves.
If you are asking about the general case, as suggested by your question's title, you can run your script with sh -x scriptname to see what it's doing. It's also quite common to write diagnostic output into the script itself, and control it with an option.
#!/bin/sh
verbose=false
case $1 in -v | --verbose )
verbose=true
shift ;;
esac
say () {
$verbose || return
echo "$0: $#" >&2
}
say "Removing $dir ..."
rm -rf "$dir" || say "Failed."
If you run this script without any options, it will run silently, like a well-behaved Unix utility should. If you run it with the -v option, it will print some diagnostics to standard error.
rm -rf "My Folder" && echo "Done" || echo "Error!"
You can read more on creating a sequence of pipelines in bash manual
In the bash (and other similar shells) the ? environment variable gives you the exit code of the last executed command. So you can do:
#!/bin/sh
rm -rf "My Folder"
echo $?
UPDATE
If once the rm command has been executed the directory doesn't exist (because it has been successfully removed or because it didn't exist when the command was executed) the script will print 0. If the directory exists (which will mean that the command has been unable to remove it) then the script will print an exit code other than 0. If I understand properly the question this is exactly the requested behavior. If it is not, please correct me.
The previous answers was wrong : rm don't exit with error code > 0 when the dir isn't present.
Instead, I recommend to use :
dir='/path/to/dir'
if [[ -d $dir ]]; then
rm -rf "$dir"
fi
If you want rm to return a status, remove -f flag.
Example on Linux Mint (the dir doesn't exists):
$ rm -rf /tmp/sdfghjklm
$ echo $?
0
$ rm -r /tmp/sdfghjklm
$ echo $?
1