My version: #!/bin/bash SOUNDPATH=${HOME}/.play-random/sounds if [ ! -d ${SOUNDP...

My version:

#!/bin/bash

  SOUNDPATH=${HOME}/.play-random/sounds

  if [ ! -d ${SOUNDPATH} ]; then
      echo "Create and populate '${SOUNDPATH}' directory"
      exit 1;
  fi

  SOUNDS=($(ls "${SOUNDPATH}"))
  NUM_SOUNDS=${#SOUNDS[*]}

  if [ ${NUM_SOUNDS} -eq 0 ]; then
      echo "No sound files found in '${SOUNDPATH}' directory"
      exit 1;
  fi

  # select which sound to play
  SOUND="${SOUNDPATH}/${SOUNDS[$((RANDOM%NUM_SOUNDS))]}"
  echo ${SOUND}

  /usr/bin/aplay ${SOUND}

code at: http://aeminium.org/slug/software/shell/#play.random.sh

There's a way of removing that ls ${DIR} and use an echo ${DIR}/* at the expense of making it a bit uglier to detect when there's no sound files.