Node.js check if file exists

RomanGorbatko picture RomanGorbatko · Jul 17, 2013 · Viewed 226k times · Source

How do i check the existence of a file?

In the documentation for the module fs there's a description of the method fs.exists(path, callback). But, as I understand, it checks for the existence of only directories. And I need to check the file!

How can this be done?

Answer

dardar.moh picture dardar.moh · Jul 17, 2013

Why not just try opening the file ? fs.open('YourFile', 'a', function (err, fd) { ... }) anyway after a minute search try this :

var path = require('path'); 

path.exists('foo.txt', function(exists) { 
  if (exists) { 
    // do something 
  } 
}); 

// or 

if (path.existsSync('foo.txt')) { 
  // do something 
} 

For Node.js v0.12.x and higher

Both path.exists and fs.exists have been deprecated

*Edit:

Changed: else if(err.code == 'ENOENT')

to: else if(err.code === 'ENOENT')

Linter complains about the double equals not being the triple equals.

Using fs.stat:

fs.stat('foo.txt', function(err, stat) {
    if(err == null) {
        console.log('File exists');
    } else if(err.code === 'ENOENT') {
        // file does not exist
        fs.writeFile('log.txt', 'Some log\n');
    } else {
        console.log('Some other error: ', err.code);
    }
});