Portable way to check if directory exists [Windows/Linux, C]

ivy picture ivy · Aug 7, 2013 · Viewed 97.6k times · Source

I would like to check if a given directory exists. I know how to do this on Windows:

BOOL DirectoryExists(LPCTSTR szPath)
{
  DWORD dwAttrib = GetFileAttributes(szPath);

  return (dwAttrib != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES && 
         (dwAttrib & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY));
}

and Linux:

DIR* dir = opendir("mydir");
if (dir)
{
    /* Directory exists. */
    closedir(dir);
}
else if (ENOENT == errno)
{
    /* Directory does not exist. */
}
else
{
    /* opendir() failed for some other reason. */
}

But I need a portable way of doing this .. Is there any way to check if a directory exists no matter what OS Im using? Maybe C standard library way?

I know that I can use preprocessors directives and call those functions on different OSes but thats not the solution Im asking for.

I END UP WITH THIS, AT LEAST FOR NOW:

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int dirExists(const char *path)
{
    struct stat info;

    if(stat( path, &info ) != 0)
        return 0;
    else if(info.st_mode & S_IFDIR)
        return 1;
    else
        return 0;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    const char *path = "./TEST/";
    printf("%d\n", dirExists(path));
    return 0;
}

Answer

Ingo Leonhardt picture Ingo Leonhardt · Aug 7, 2013

stat() works on Linux., UNIX and Windows as well:

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>

struct stat info;

if( stat( pathname, &info ) != 0 )
    printf( "cannot access %s\n", pathname );
else if( info.st_mode & S_IFDIR )  // S_ISDIR() doesn't exist on my windows 
    printf( "%s is a directory\n", pathname );
else
    printf( "%s is no directory\n", pathname );