Re: Documentation of file-exists-p in the elisp manual could be better...

[Kevin Rodgers]

Dan Katz wrote:

> I went looking for a way to find out if a directory existed, and ended
> up using file-exists-p.  Looking at the elisp manual, however, did not
> make it clear whether this was the correct approach or whether it was
> "working by accident."  In particular, the elisp manual description of
> file-exists-p was not really clear whether (or how) this function
> would (or should) work for directories, sym-links, etc.  While it
> seems to basically "do the right thing", I suggest that the
> documentation needs to be a bit more explicit about notions of
> "generalized" files and how the file-handling functions apply.
>
> The docstring for file-exists-p was not much use in this regard,
> although it's link to file-attributes is what led me to suspect that
> file-exists-p might be the correct approach for directories as well.
> That's a rather indirect hint, however.

What is unclear about this:

| file-directory-p is a built-in function.
| (file-directory-p FILENAME)
|
| Return t if FILENAME names an existing directory.
| Symbolic links to directories count as directories.
| See `file-symlink-p' to distinguish symlinks.

--
<a href="mailto:&lt;kevin.rodgers&#64;ihs.com&gt;";>Kevin Rodgers</a>