# check if a directory is empty in bash


I had this small problem, how to you check if a directory is
empty in the shell? Suppose I want to do

    cmd po/*

this fails, if the `po` directory is empty, which in turn makes my
compile barf, but that is another story.  I needed something to would
check the emptiness of the directory, and if it is not empty perform the
command, otherwise it skip it. 

The trick here is to remember that if a shell wildcard can not be
expanded it will be left alone. So an unexpanded `*` will stay a `*`.

Thus

    if [ po/* = "po/*" ]; then 
        echo empty
    else
        echo loaded
    fi

will check if a directory is empty. This can also be folded into one
line

    [ po/* = "po/*" ] || cmd po/*

*UPDATE*
Jaap Akkerhuis reminded me that this (ofcourse) fails with hidden files
as those are not expanded by `*`. This could be fixes by also checking
for `.*`