Checking if a file exists

[audiopro]

Hi Guys
Simple but annoying problem.
How do I test to see if a particular file exists on the server? OPEN does a sort of test but creates the file if it doesn't exist.
Thanks
Keith

 

[mubman]

Try something like:

my $filename = "/usr/bin/perl";
-e $filename or warn "Perl is not installed correctly";

 

[audiopro]

Thanks
Is the -e switch, PERL's EXIST operator?
Keith

 

[mubman]

Yes, there are a number of file test operators - -w for a writeable file, -r for readable and so on. No doubt there's a complete list somewhere in the perl documentation.

 

[audiopro]

Thanks for the replies.
Are these just command line switches or are they script based. My problem is that I am asking the questions from work so have no way of testing.
I am writing a Shopping Cart and each product has its own small picture. Some of the products have enlarged pictures which have the same name as the small pictures but reside in a different directory.
All I want to check for is the existence of a picture in the "large pic" directory. Other laguages I program have a specific 'EXIST' command or something similar.
Thanks
Keith

 

[PaulTEG]

 if (-e "/path/to/file") {
   print "File exists";
 } else {
   print "Oh no it doesn't";
 }

HTH
--Paul

 

[mubman]

They are not command line switches!

"perl -e" does something quite different.

The code in my first post could be used as it is to form part of a perl program.

 

[mubman]

To expand slightly the file operators are generally unary boolean operators. i.e. they take a single argument (a scalar which evaluates to a filename or filehandle) and return true or false.