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Re: Documentation of file-exists-p in the elisp manual could be better..
From: |
Dan Katz |
Subject: |
Re: Documentation of file-exists-p in the elisp manual could be better... |
Date: |
Thu, 05 Jun 2003 19:05:47 -0400 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.1003 (Gnus v5.10.3) Emacs/21.3 (gnu/linux) |
On Thu, 05 Jun 2003, Kevin Rodgers wrote:
> Dan Katz wrote:
>
>> I went looking for a way to find out if a directory existed, and
>> ended up using file-exists-p. Looking at the elisp manual,
>> however, did not make it clear whether this was the correct
>> approach or whether it was "working by accident."
>
> What is unclear about this:
>
> | file-directory-p is a built-in function.
> | (file-directory-p FILENAME)
> |
> | Return t if FILENAME names an existing directory.
> | Symbolic links to directories count as directories.
> | See `file-symlink-p' to distinguish symlinks.
Nothing at all; in fact I even looked at file-directory-p in my
excursion into the elisp manual, and saw that it would do the job. On
the other hand, it was argued to me that file-exists-p expressed the
contextual intent of the test better than file-directory-p. I
dunno...
What *is* still unclear to me, however, is the precise domain of
file-exists-p? Regular files (i.e., the same as file-regular-p)?
Regular files + directories? Everything which could possibly be
conceived of as a file? Platform dependent?
I notice that at the end of the docstring for file-directory-p there
is a particularly useful "See `file-symlink-p' to distinguish
symlinks." comment. If file-directory-p et al. are the preferred ways
to test for the existence of files, symlinks, etc., then I suggest
that similar comments might be useful in the context of file-exists-p.
My adventure into this area, at least, began with roughly the
following dialog:
step 0: I need to see if a directory exists...
step 1: M-x apropos exist
step 2: Hmmm... no 'directory-exists-p', but there is this function
called 'file-exists-p'...
Thanks.
Dan