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C program to check a specified file exists or not using the access() function

Here, we are going to learn how to check a specified file exists or not using the access() function using C program?
Submitted by Nidhi, on August 13, 2021

Problem statement

Given a file path, we have to check whether a specified file exist or not using the access() function.

C program to check a specified file exists or not using the access() function

The source code to check a specified file exists or not using the access() function is given below. The given program is compiled and executed using GCC compile on UBUNTU 18.04 OS successfully.

// C program to check whether a specified file exist
// or not using access() function

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(void)
{
    int isFileExist = 0;

    isFileExist = access("includehelp.txt", F_OK);

    if (isFileExist != -1) {
        printf("file exists.\n");
        return 1;
    }

    printf("file does not exists.\n");
    return 0;
}

Output

file exists.

Explanation

Here, we checked file "includehelp.txt" exists in the current directory or not using the access() function. Then printed the appropriate message on the console screen.

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