PERL: Determine if a folder/file exists?

[michaelsanford]

I seem to remember seeing somewhere in a sh or pl script, syntax similar to

IF EXIST $folder {
&install;
} else {
&create_folder;
&install;
}

Or something to that effect, but not that exactly.

I need to know how to determine if a file or folder exists on the system (I can pass it the absolute path, so I can check for mounted volumes with known names especially).

Thanks!

 

[MacMarshall]

Give this a try --

if (-e $folder) {
&install;
} else {
&create_folder;
&install;
}

But it's better written like this (TMTOWTDI):

unless (-e $folder) {&create_folder}
&install;

 

[michaelsanford]

Cool thanks, I found the -e switch somewhere but I wasn't sure it worked on folders, this is perfect.

 

[kukident]

-d $path tells you if it's a directory (and not a file).
-w $path tells you if you can write to it.

check this

 

[michaelsanford]

Cool that is useful too, thanks!