Bash- Extract every smaller path out of a full path -

i'm trying take full path directory , extract every path out of it. example

fullpath="/home/me/something/file"  /home/me/something/file /home/me/something /home/me /home 

my attempt haven't been able figure out how bring paths out.

ifs=$'/'                 in $restorepath                                      echo $i                       if [ -d $i ];                         echo dir exists                        fi                  done                 unset ifs 

couple of issues:

• you're testing directory, looks you're providing file
• there no reason unset ifs since change won't propagated parent shell. if want re-set default 1 use later in script, can save old 1 in variable , reset after, or change common ifs=$'\t\n '

try this

#!/bin/bash fullpath="/home/me/something/file" ifs='/' in $fullpath;     subpath+="$i/"     if [[ -e $subpath ]];       echo "$subpath"     elif [[ -e ${subpath%?} ]];       echo "${subpath%?}" && break     else       break     fi done 

note, ${subpath%?} chops off last character (? = single character wildcard in bash), in case entered file , not directory input. it's safe break loop if subpath doesn't exist, since implies no descendant of can exist.