# $EPIC: fexist.txt,v 1.4 2008/05/28 19:46:15 jnelson Exp $
Synopsis:
$fexist(<file>)
$fexist("" <file>)
Technical:
The <file> argument is a
dword which is different from most function arguments.
In the first case, <file> is a single extended word (you may surround it with double quotes if it contains spaces). Any further arguments are ignored.
In the second case, the first argument is an empty string, and the rest of the arguments are taken as a filename literally. Do not backslash or double quote anything in <file>.
Tilde-expansion is supported in both forms, both “~/file” for files in your home directory and “~user/file” for files in someone else's home directory.
If <file> is not a symbolic link, it exists, and you have read access to it, the return value is 1.
If <file> is a symbolic link and the file it points to exists, and you have read access to it, the return value is 1.
In the other cases (the file doesn't exist, or you can't read it), the return value is -1.
Practical:
This function is used when you want to see if a particular file exists.
This could be useful to make sure a file is present before trying to
load it. This function does not return 0!
Returns:
-1 file does not exist or is not readable by you.
1 file exists and you can read it.
Examples:
$fexist(/etc/passwd) probably will return 1
$fexist(~/.ircrc) probably will return 1 too
$fexist(fake_file) returns -1
History:
This function first appeared in EPIC3pre7.