<function name="Exists" parent="file" type="libraryfunc"> <description> Returns a boolean of whether the file or directory exists or not. <bug issue="1038"> This will sometimes return false clientside for directories received from the server via a clientside lua file. You can work around this by using <page>file.Find</page> with the path to the directory followed by a wildcard (no trailing forward slash) and see if the directory is inside the returned directories table (**see second example)**.</bug> </description> <realm>Shared and Menu</realm> <args> <arg name="name" type="string">The file or directory's name.</arg> <arg name="gamePath" type="string">The path to look for the files and directories in. See <page text="this list">File_Search_Paths</page> for a list of valid paths.</arg> </args> <rets> <ret name="" type="boolean">Returns `true` if the file exists and `false` if it does not.</ret> </rets> </function> <example> <description>Prints whether the `data` folder exists in the base directory.</description> <code>print( file.Exists( "data", "GAME" ) )</code> <output>true</output>⤶ <output>⤶ ```⤶ true⤶ ```⤶ </output>⤶ </example> <example> <description>Workaround for issue [#1038](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/1038).</description> <code> local _, dirs = file.Find( "path/to/dir*", "LUA" ) if dirs ~= nil and table.HasValue( dirs, "dir" ) then print( "Directory found!" ) end⤶ local _, folders = file.Find( "path/to/dir*", "LUA" ) ⤶ for _, v in ipairs( folders ) do⤶ if v == "dir" then⤶ print( "Directory found!" )⤶ break⤶ end⤶ end⤶ </code> </example>