How do I check if a directory exists? "is_dir", "file_exists" or both?
Solution 1:
Both would return true on Unix systems - in Unix everything is a file, including directories. But to test if that name is taken, you should check both. There might be a regular file named 'foo', which would prevent you from creating a directory name 'foo'.
Solution 2:
$dirname = $_POST["search"];
$filename = "/folder/" . $dirname . "/";
if (!file_exists($filename)) {
mkdir("folder/" . $dirname, 0777);
echo "The directory $dirname was successfully created.";
exit;
} else {
echo "The directory $dirname exists.";
}
Solution 3:
I think realpath() may be the best way to validate if a path exist http://www.php.net/realpath
Here is an example function:
<?php
/**
* Checks if a folder exist and return canonicalized absolute pathname (long version)
* @param string $folder the path being checked.
* @return mixed returns the canonicalized absolute pathname on success otherwise FALSE is returned
*/
function folder_exist($folder)
{
// Get canonicalized absolute pathname
$path = realpath($folder);
// If it exist, check if it's a directory
if($path !== false AND is_dir($path))
{
// Return canonicalized absolute pathname
return $path;
}
// Path/folder does not exist
return false;
}
Short version of the same function
<?php
/**
* Checks if a folder exist and return canonicalized absolute pathname (sort version)
* @param string $folder the path being checked.
* @return mixed returns the canonicalized absolute pathname on success otherwise FALSE is returned
*/
function folder_exist($folder)
{
// Get canonicalized absolute pathname
$path = realpath($folder);
// If it exist, check if it's a directory
return ($path !== false AND is_dir($path)) ? $path : false;
}
Output examples
<?php
/** CASE 1 **/
$input = '/some/path/which/does/not/exist';
var_dump($input); // string(31) "/some/path/which/does/not/exist"
$output = folder_exist($input);
var_dump($output); // bool(false)
/** CASE 2 **/
$input = '/home';
var_dump($input);
$output = folder_exist($input); // string(5) "/home"
var_dump($output); // string(5) "/home"
/** CASE 3 **/
$input = '/home/..';
var_dump($input); // string(8) "/home/.."
$output = folder_exist($input);
var_dump($output); // string(1) "/"
Usage
<?php
$folder = '/foo/bar';
if(FALSE !== ($path = folder_exist($folder)))
{
die('Folder ' . $path . ' already exist');
}
mkdir($folder);
// Continue do stuff
Solution 4:
Second variant in question post is not ok, because, if you already have file with the same name, but it is not a directory, !file_exists($dir)
will return false
, folder will not be created, so error "failed to open stream: No such file or directory"
will be occured. In Windows there is a difference between 'file' and 'folder' types, so need to use file_exists()
and is_dir()
at the same time, for ex.:
if (file_exists('file')) {
if (!is_dir('file')) { //if file is already present, but it's not a dir
//do something with file - delete, rename, etc.
unlink('file'); //for example
mkdir('file', NEEDED_ACCESS_LEVEL);
}
} else { //no file exists with this name
mkdir('file', NEEDED_ACCESS_LEVEL);
}