std::filesystem:: exists

Checks if the given file status or path corresponds to an existing file or directory.

Parameters

Return value

true if the given path or file status corresponds to an existing file or directory, false otherwise.

Exceptions

Any overload not marked noexcept may throw std::bad_alloc if memory allocation fails.

No filesystem exception is thrown if object does not exist (use return value).

Notes

The information provided by this function is usually also provided as a byproduct of directory iteration. During directory iteration, calling exists ( * iterator ) is less efficient than exists ( iterator - > status ( ) ) .

Example

#include <cstdint>
#include <filesystem>
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;
 
void demo_exists(const fs::path& p, fs::file_status s = fs::file_status{})
{
    std::cout << p;
    if (fs::status_known(s) ? fs::exists(s) : fs::exists(p))
        std::cout << " exists\n";
    else
        std::cout << " does not exist\n";
}
 
int main()
{
    const fs::path sandbox{"sandbox"};
    fs::create_directory(sandbox);
    std::ofstream{sandbox/"file"}; // create regular file
    fs::create_symlink("non-existing", sandbox/"symlink");
 
    demo_exists(sandbox);
 
    for (const auto& entry : fs::directory_iterator(sandbox))
        demo_exists(entry, entry.status()); // use cached status from directory entry
 
    fs::remove_all(sandbox);
}

"sandbox" exists
"sandbox/symlink" does not exist
"sandbox/file" exists

See also