LinuxQuestions.org - file exists?

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- - file exists? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/programming-9/file-exists-108620/)

Hello

I am programming c in lunux. I need to determine weather a file exists, but without opening it. Is there a way to do this?

I dont want to use open("file",0) and check the return value...

Thanks

raven

Never mind - that was bash - dunno if it works in C.

I'm an idiot.

look up the stat sytem call

man 2 stat

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

#include <errno.h>

#include <unistd.h>

#include <sys/types.h>

#include <sys/stat.h>



int main(int argc, char **argv)

{

    char *filename;

    int result;

    struct stat statinfo;



    if (argc != 2) {

          fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [<file>]\n", argv[0]);

          return 1;

    }

    filename = argv[1];

    result = stat(filename, &statinfo);

    if (result < 0) {

          if (errno == ENOENT) {

              printf("File %s does not exist\n", filename);

              return 0;

          } else {

              perror(*argv);

              return 1;

          }

    }

    printf("File %s exists, and is a ", filename);

    switch (statinfo.st_mode & S_IFMT) {

    case S_IFREG:  printf("regular file.\n"); break;

    case S_IFSOCK: printf("filesystem socket.\n"); break;

    case S_IFLNK:  printf("symbolic link.\n"); break;

    case S_IFBLK:  printf("block device file.\n"); break;

    case S_IFDIR:  printf("directory.\n"); break;

    case S_IFCHR:  printf("character device file.\n"); break;

    case S_IFIFO:  printf("filesystem pipe (fifo) file.\n"); break;

    default:  printf("unknown type of file.\n"); break;

    }

    return 0;

}

Code:

#include <sys/types.h>

#include <sys/stat.h>

#include <unistd.h>

main()

{

        struct stat BUF;

        if(stat("/path/to/where/file/exists",&BUF)==-1)

        {

                printf("File doesn't exist\n");

        }

}

Hope this does it for you

That's not reliable.
If stat() returns -1, that doesn't necessarily mean the file does not exist.

Yeah you are right ...
You need to check errono for the correct error.

Thanks for pointing that mistake.

Wow :-) so many replies. Thanks for all, Now I've got it :-)

raven