<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> <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)**. **This is fixed in the next update.**</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> </example> <example> <description>Workaround for issue [#1038](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/1038).</description> <code> 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>