2008/3/7, Ben Abbott <address@hidden>:
On Mar 7, 2008, at 5:24 AM, Primoz PETERLIN wrote:
> 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® 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
Regarding how exist() functions in Octave, it is intended to be
consistent with Matlab. If is it not, or if you'd like to see the
documentation changed we're all volunteers, and would like to see
more!
You can find the sources here: http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/download.html
Instructions for bug reports are here:
http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/bugs.html
In any event, with regards to your present question; take a look at
"dir" and "what"
Ben