From: Alex LeDonne <aledonne.listmail@...>
Date: 2007-07-23T10:11:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Problem with File.exists? giving an incorrect result

On 7/22/07, Chris Dwan <radixhound@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a problem with a script I'm working on.  File.exists? is
> telling me that a file does in fact exist, then immediately after
> when I try to do a File.read, it crashes because the file doesn't
> exist.  I know that it does not exist, because I'm testing that
> condition. If the file doesn't exist, it should do something else.
>
> <sigh> this is on Windows, so maybe the OS is to blame?
> Here's the code, if it helps..
>
>              $debug_log.fatal("does file exist? :: #{ibl}")
>              if File.exist?(ibl)
>                $debug_log.fatal("YES - it most certainlyt does!")
>                iblLocation = ibl
>              else
>                  #find the file and set iblLocation
>              end
>              File.read(iblLocation) # << bombs here
>
> The file referred to by ibl was recently renamed by this same script,
> so the file name in ibl is no longer valid. The script should then go
> looking for ibl's new name and use that... but it won't work <sob><sob>
>
> Hope someone can enlighten me.
> Thanks!
>
What does the rename code look like? I've seen lots of weirdness on
Windows because file operations that you might think are atomic,
aren't.

-A