Check if a file or folder exists

January 1, 2000 by Snakefoot | 7 Comments

It can be useful in batch files to know whether a file or folder exists. One can use files as semaphores and for inter proces communication (IPC).

To check if a file exists:

IF EXIST c:\windows\win.com ECHO File exists!

To check if a directory exists (Notice the nul):

IF EXIST c:\windows\nul ECHO Directory exists!

Note if working with long directory names with spaces, then one needs to put quotes around the directory-/file-path (Notice that nul should not be included):

IF EXIST "C:\Program Files\" ECHO Directory exists!

More Info MS KB65994

Updated: 23 July 2009

Comments:

Frank says:

23 July 2009 at 19:13

This "\NUL" folder syntax is not working for me on XPsp2.

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Frank says:

23 July 2009 at 19:16

OK, further searching seems to indicate the “\NUL” folder syntax only works on FAT drives so it can't be depended upon.

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Snakefoot says:

23 July 2009 at 21:37

Frank wrote:

The “\NUL” folder syntax only works on FAT drives so it can’t be depended upon

I have just tested that one could use the NUL syntax in WinXP on a NTFS drive (and it works).

The problem with the NUL syntax is that one cannot use it with long directory names. I have now updated this very old DOS tip :)

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AO says:

14 September 2009 at 14:46

Works on NTFS. My batch file is as follow:

@echo off
IF EXIST "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\" ECHO Directory exists!

Thanks for the post & tips, Snakefoot

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Mammarduk says:

15 November 2010 at 21:53

Really usefull. Good job.
Thanks.

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John says:

12 January 2012 at 20:48

Thanks for posting this info , very helpfull

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matthew warburton says:

9 August 2012 at 10:14

Very useful, thanks for sharing

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