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Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 1.6 KB

Path: sn.no!usenet
From: [e-mail] (jan-henrik haukeland)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: How to tell if a file exists in C
Date: 07 Feb 1996 23:54:58 +0100
Organization: LH*281263
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References: <4eqkj6$[e-mail]>
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In-reply-to: Lawrence Kirby's message of Tue, 06 Feb 96 17:26:05 GMT
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Lawrence Kirby writes:

 : [e-mail] "jan-henrik haukeland" writes:
 :
 : >Use the stat function, e.g.:
 : >
 : >int fexist(char * filename)

<snip>

 : This function returns 3 distinct values. As such it does not return a
 : voolean-like quantity. Therefore it is highly misleading to label two of
 : those return values as TRUE and FALSE - you should find some more
 : appropriate names.

Should I ? Lets see, either the file exist or it don't - Yes. Normal usage
of this function would be, something like:

    if ( ! fexist(filename)) {
      /* Do stuff */
        }

See, either it exist or it don't - and thats Boolean. But as a special
"fyzzy logic" service, it will distinguish between TRUE, because even if it
is TRUE that it exist, it's maybe not so true as You would like it to be,
because it's NOT_A_REGULAR_FILE (i.e. a dir. a /dev ..). It is then
possible to test for this. Beside did I say it was a boolean function, I
think not.

 : -----------------------------------------
 : Lawrence Kirby | [e-mail]
 : Wilts, England | [e-mail]
 : -----------------------------------------


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