Checking whether a file exists

[Primoz PETERLIN]

Hello everyone,

Time for another novice question...

What is the best way to check whether a data file exists (in order to avoid
its accidental overwriting)?

1) The function exist() is supposed to return 2 "if the name (after
appending `.m') is a function file in Octave's `path'", but it also returns
2 if a file is a data file in my search path, e.g., my current working
directory. Is this the intended behaviour and something I should rely on, or
is it just some side effect which can vanish in the next release of Octave.
In the former case, the documentation should probably explicitely say so
(Matlab documentation claims that exist(name) returns 2 "If name is an
M-file on your MATLAB(R) search path. It also returns 2 when name is the full
pathname to a file or the name of an ordinary file on your MATLAB search
path. ").

2) stat() also does the job, but I believe it is not available in Matlab?

TIA, Primoz
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.cae.wisc.edu/pipermail/help-octave/attachments/20080307/954c65c4/attachment.html