node.js check if a remote URL exists

Question

How do I check to see if a URL exists without pulling it down? I use the following code, but it downloads the whole file. I just need to check that it exists.

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Answer 1

2020 update

request has now been deprecated which has brought down url-exists with it. Use url-exist instead.

const urlExist = require("url-exist");

(async () => {
    const exists = await urlExist("https://google.com");
    // Handle result
    console.log(exists)
})();

If you (for some reason) need to use it synchronously, you can use url-exist-sync.

2019 update

Since 2017, request and callback-style functions (from url-exists) have fallen out of use.

However, there is a fix. Swap url-exists for url-exist.

So instead of using:

const urlExists = require("url-exists")

urlExists("https://google.com", (_, exists) => {
    // Handle result
    console.log(exists)
})

Use this:

const urlExist = require("url-exist");

(async () => {
    const exists = await urlExist("https://google.com");
    // Handle result
    console.log(exists)
})();

Original answer (2017)

If you have access to the request package, you can try this:

const request = require("request")
const urlExists = url => new Promise((resolve, reject) => request.head(url).on("response", res => resolve(res.statusCode.toString()[0] === "2")))
urlExists("https://google.com").then(exists => console.log(exists)) // true

Most of this logic is already provided by url-exists.