Test if File/Dir exists over SSH/Sudo in Python/Bash

bash, fabric, python, ssh

Solution

from fabric.contrib.files import exists

def foo():
    if exists('/path/to/remote/file', use_sudo=True):
        #command

Problem

I am installing certificates on a remote server and want to check whether they exist before I overwrite them. The server only allows non-root access via ssh public key. I can `sudo -s` to root once in a shell. Root is required because /etc/ssl is not readable by anyone else. This is being developed in `python fabric`, so any command that can be run in a shell command via `sudo` would work. I don't mind typing in passwords at prompts in this case. TL;DR: I need an `sh` command that can tell my python program whether a remote file (or directory) exists when run as `if fabric.sudo(sh_command) == True:` (or something similar). Thank you!

Original source

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