How to check if a folder (directory) exists in Cocoa using Objective-C?
Use NSFileManager's fileExistsAtPath:isDirectory: method. See Apple's docs here.
Some good advice from Apple in the NSFileManager.h regarding checking the file system:
"It's far better to attempt an operation (like loading a file or creating a directory) and handle the error gracefully than it is to try to figure out ahead of time whether the operation will succeed. Attempting to predicate behavior based on the current state of the filesystem or a particular file on the filesystem is encouraging odd behavior in the face of filesystem race conditions."
[NSFileManager fileExistsAtPath:isDirectory:]
Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether a specified file exists.
- (BOOL)fileExistsAtPath:(NSString *)path isDirectory:(BOOL *)isDirectory
Parameters
path
The path of a file or directory. If path begins with a tilde (~), it must first be expanded with stringByExpandingTildeInPath, or this method will return NO.
isDirectory
Upon return, contains YES if path is a directory or if the final path element is a symbolic link that points to a directory, otherwise contains NO. If path doesn’t exist, the return value is undefined. Pass NULL if you do not need this information.
Return Value
YES if there is a file or directory at path, otherwise NO. If path specifies a symbolic link, this method traverses the link and returns YES or NO based on the existence of the file or directory at the link destination.
NSFileManager is the best place to look for file related APIs. The specific API you require is
- fileExistsAtPath:isDirectory:.
Example:
NSString *pathToFile = #"...";
BOOL isDir = NO;
BOOL isFile = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:pathToFile isDirectory:&isDir];
if(isFile)
{
//it is a file, process it here how ever you like, check isDir to see if its a directory
}
else
{
//not a file, this is an error, handle it!
}
If your have a NSURL object as path, it's better to use path to convert it into NSString.
NSFileManager*fm = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSURL* path = [[[fm URLsForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory
inDomains:NSUserDomainMask] objectAtIndex:0]
URLByAppendingPathComponent:#"photos"];
NSError *theError = nil;
if(![fm fileExistsAtPath:[path path]]){
NSLog(#"dir doesn't exists");
}else
NSLog(#"dir exists");
Related
I know that the iOS Simulator is found in a different directory each time it is run; with that in mind, I have this code which gives me the directory of the Core Data sqlite files:
// find current directory for saori.sqlite
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSURL *documentDirectory = [[fileManager URLsForDirectory:NSLibraryDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask]firstObject];
NSString *sqliteFilePath = [[documentDirectory URLByAppendingPathComponent:#"Application Support/SalonBook/saori.sqlite"] absoluteString];
if ([fileManager fileExistsAtPath:sqliteFilePath])
[MagicalRecord cleanUp]; // set stack, etc to 'nil'
else {
NSLog(#"\n\n-->sqlite files not found"); // log message "unable to find sqlite files
return;
}
This is the printout of the sqliteFilePath object:
Printing description of sqliteFilePath:
file:///Users/rolfmarsh/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/1EE69744-255A-45CD-88F1-63FEAD117B32/data/Containers/Data/Application/C8FF20F0-41E4-4F26-AB06-1F29936C2208/Library/Application%20Support/SalonBook/saori.sqlite
And this is the image of the file from Finder:
The problem is: I go to the sqliteFilePath and the saori.sqlite file is indeed there! Why is -fileExistsAtPath failing?
Because it is still a URL. A file path doesn't have a protocol, so the prefix of your path file:/// is invalid and can't be resolved. Since an invalid path doesn't contain any files, fileExistsAtPath: returns NO.
Not to worry though, instead of calling absoluteString on the URL object, you can just call path instead and it will return the path.
I have a browse function where I get the url of a file.
Now I want to save the file in the supporting file dictionary so that if the file is move anywhere else it can still access it
I have a code which saves it to the supporting files:
NSURL *mainUrl;
mainUrl=[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundleURL];
NSFileManager *Fm;
[Fm copyItemAtURL:url toURL:mainUrl error:nil];
but I don't know what the name and the extension because the browse function allows png,jpg,jepg files
and I would need the name to access it
so my question would be how I can I save the file there with a name and extension of my choose
my name would look like that:
NSString *string;
NSInteger number;
number=0;
string=[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#%li",#"img",(long)number];
and the extension would be jpg
can somebody help me?
You can use NSString's -stringByAppendingPathExtension: method:
[#"foo" stringByAppendingPathExtension: #"jpg"];
results in #"foo.jpg".
You could get the file name and the extension using the specified full path and the following functions.
/* NSString Class References*/
lastPathComponent
Returns the last path component of the receiver.
(NSString *)lastPathComponent
pathExtension
Interprets the receiver as a path and returns the receiver’s extension, if any.
(NSString *)pathExtension
fileExistsAtPath is returning NO for a directory that exists. If I have the following code:
NSURL *newDirectoryPath = ... // path does not begin with a tilda
// and is created using URLByAppendingPathComponent:isDirectory:
BOOL directoryExists = [self.fileManager fileExistsAtPath:[newDirectoryPath absoluteString]];
if (NO == directoryExists)
{
BOOL ret = [self.fileManager moveItemAtURL:self.currentPresentationDirectoryPath toURL:newDirectoryPath error: &err];
// ret is YES, err is nil
directoryExists = [self.fileManager fileExistsAtPath:[newDirectoryPath absoluteString]];
}
Even though the directory has just been created successfully with moveItemAtURL, fileExistsAtPath is still returning NO.
I know the documentation says this:
Attempting to predicate behavior based on the current state of the
file system or a particular file on the file system is not
recommended. Doing so can cause odd behavior in the case of file
system race conditions.
But I want to understand what the issue is here - if I close the app and relaunch it then the first check for fileExistsAtPath in the code above is still returning NO, even though the directory was previously successfully created during the prior execution of the code, and I can see the directory in the Organizer, and I can also successfully read from the contents of the directory etc. etc.
P.S. is there no fileExistsAtURL: method?
If you have an NSURL, -absoluteURL won't return a usable path for NSFileManager. It will return the absolute URL with the file:// prefix. E.g.: file:///path/to/file.
Instead try to use an other method, like -path. Check if that works.
NSURL *myURL = /* some url */;
NSString *myPath;
BOOL exi;
myPath = [myURL path];
exi = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:myPath];
if(!exi) {
NSLog(#"File does not exist");
}
Okay,
So I have a Cydia app that I need to update. I am aware with Cydia apps that they don't have a Documents folder, so you have to make one. And here's how I made it before in iOS 4 (which doesn't work on iOS 5):
mkdir("/var/mobile/Library/APPNAME", 0755);
mkdir("/var/mobile/Library/APPNAME/Documents", 0755);
NSString *foofile = #"/var/mobile/Library/APPNAME/Documents/database.db";
BOOL fileExists = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:foofile];
if (fileExists == TRUE) {
NSLog(#"already exists");
} else {
NSLog(#"doesn't exists");
NSFileManager *fileManager = [[NSFileManager defaultManager]autorelease];
NSError *error;
NSString *documentDBFolderPath = #"/var/mobile/Library/APPNAME/Documents/database.db";
NSString *resourceDBFolderPath = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"database.db"];
[fileManager copyItemAtPath:resourceDBFolderPath toPath:documentDBFolderPath error:&error];
}
I also included code that copies the database file to that folder, too. That doesn't work (even when I create the folder manually via SSH).
Please help! Thanks.
Here is the method I made to create directories
-(void)createDirectory:(NSString *)directoryName atFilePath:(NSString *)filePath
{
NSString *filePathAndDirectory = [filePath stringByAppendingPathComponent:directoryName];
NSError *error;
if (![[NSFileManager defaultManager] createDirectoryAtPath:filePathAndDirectory
withIntermediateDirectories:NO
attributes:nil
error:&error])
{
NSLog(#"Create directory error: %#", error);
}
}
Try using createDirectoryAtURL:withIntermediateDirectories:attributes:error:.
NSFileManager Class Reference:
createDirectoryAtURL:withIntermediateDirectories:attributes:error:
Creates a directory with given attributes at the specified path.
Parameters
url - A file URL that specifies the directory to create.
If you want to specify a relative path, you must set the
current working directory before creating the corresponding
NSURL object. This parameter must not be nil.
createIntermediates - If YES, this method creates any non-existent
parent directories as part of creating the directory in url. If NO,
this method fails if any of the intermediate parent directories does
not exist. This method also fails if any of the intermediate path
elements corresponds to a file and not a directory.
attributes - The file attributes for the new directory and any newly created
intermediate directories. You can set the owner and group numbers,
file permissions, and modification date. If you specify nil for this
parameter or omit a particular value, one or more default values are
used as described in the discussion. For a list of keys you can
include in this dictionary, see “Constants” (page 54) section lists
the global constants used as keys in the attributes dictionary. Some
of the keys, such as NSFileHFSCreatorCode and NSFileHFSTypeCode, do
not apply to directories.
error - On input, a pointer to an error object. If an error occurs,
this pointer is set to an actual error object containing the error
information. You may specify nil for this parameter if you do not
want the error information.
Return Value
YES if the
directory was created or already exists or NO if an error occurred.
Check NSFileManager's class reference. To create folders you need createDirectoryAtPath:withIntermediateDirectories:attributes:error:
Superb Techotopia explanation of iOS5 filesystem
In Swift, returns true if exists or created.
func ensureDirectoryExists(path:String) -> Bool {
if !NSFileManager.defaultManager().fileExistsAtPath(path) {
do {
try NSFileManager.defaultManager().createDirectoryAtPath(path, withIntermediateDirectories: true, attributes: nil)
} catch {
print(error)
return false
}
}
return true
}
I have this code for creating a folder/directory in Objective-C/cocoa.
if(![fileManager fileExistsAtPath:directory isDirectory:&isDir])
if(![fileManager createDirectoryAtPath:directory attributes:nil])
NSLog(#"Error: Create folder failed %#", directory);
It works fine, but I got creatDirectoryAtPath:attributes is deprecated warning message.
What's the newest way of making a directory builder in Cocoa/Objective-c?
SOLVED
BOOL isDir;
NSFileManager *fileManager= [NSFileManager defaultManager];
if(![fileManager fileExistsAtPath:directory isDirectory:&isDir])
if(![fileManager createDirectoryAtPath:directory withIntermediateDirectories:YES attributes:nil error:NULL])
NSLog(#"Error: Create folder failed %#", directory);
Found in the documentation:
-[NSFileManager createDirectoryAtPath:withIntermediateDirectories:attributes:error:]
Your solution is correct, though Apple includes an important note within NSFileManager.h:
/* The following methods are of limited utility. Attempting to predicate behavior
based on the current state of the filesystem or a particular file on the
filesystem is encouraging odd behavior in the face of filesystem race conditions.
It's far better to attempt an operation (like loading a file or creating a
directory) and handle the error gracefully than it is to try to figure out ahead
of time whether the operation will succeed. */
- (BOOL)fileExistsAtPath:(NSString *)path;
- (BOOL)fileExistsAtPath:(NSString *)path isDirectory:(BOOL *)isDirectory;
- (BOOL)isReadableFileAtPath:(NSString *)path;
- (BOOL)isWritableFileAtPath:(NSString *)path;
- (BOOL)isExecutableFileAtPath:(NSString *)path;
- (BOOL)isDeletableFileAtPath:(NSString *)path;
Essentially, if multiple threads/processes are modifying the file system simultaneously the state could change in between calling fileExistsAtPath:isDirectory: and calling createDirectoryAtPath:withIntermediateDirectories:, so it is superfluous and possibly dangerous to call fileExistsAtPath:isDirectory: in this context.
For your needs and within the limited scope of your question it likely would not be a problem, but the following solution is both simpler and offers less of a chance of future issues arising:
NSFileManager *fileManager= [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSError *error = nil;
if(![fileManager createDirectoryAtPath:directory withIntermediateDirectories:YES attributes:nil error:&error]) {
// An error has occurred, do something to handle it
NSLog(#"Failed to create directory \"%#\". Error: %#", directory, error);
}
Also note from Apple's documentation:
Return Value
YES if the directory was created, YES if createIntermediates is set
and the directory already exists), or NO if an error occurred.
So, setting createIntermediates to YES, which you already do, is a de facto check of whether the directory already exists.
Thought I'd add to this and mention some more from the documentation about using the +defaultManager method:
In iOS and Mac OS X v 10.5 and later you should consider using [[NSFileManager alloc] init] rather than the singleton method defaultManager. Instances of NSFileManager are considered thread-safe when created using [[NSFileManager alloc] init].
You may prefer to work with the NSFileManager method:
createDirectoryAtURL:withIntermediateDirectories:attributes:error:
It works with URL's instead of path strings.