fs.exists, fs.existsSync - why are they deprecated?

Question

I noticed that the official node documentation says something startling about fs.exists:

\"fs.exists() is an anachronism and exists only

Answer 1

I was searching for a solution to this issue and found that fs.exists and fs.existsSync was deprecated. This seems to work well in my senario

fs.readFile(filename, 'utf8', function(err,data){
    // the err variable substitutes for the fs.exists callback function variable
    if (!err){
        // do what you planned with the file
        console.log(data)
    }else{
        // handle the non-existence of the file
        console.log('File does not exist!');
    }
});

Answer 2

There is no need to use fs.stat(), because fs.existsSync() has not been deprecated.

https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_fs_existssync_path

fs.existsSync(path)

Added in: v0.1.21 path | Synchronous version of fs.exists(). Returns true if the file exists, false otherwise.

Note that fs.exists() is deprecated, but fs.existsSync() is not. (The callback >parameter to fs.exists() accepts parameters that are inconsistent with other >Node.js callbacks. fs.existsSync() does not use a callback.)

Answer 3

You can use new install for this one and continue to use it:
https://github.com/imyller/node-fs-exists-nodeback

npm install fs-exists-nodeback

Answer 4

Because of the second paragraph you quoted.

There is no point in checking whether a file exists, because it could always be deleted right after the check.

Answer 5

existsSync's implementation is like this (v0.10.25):

function (path) {
  try {
    nullCheck(path);
    binding.stat(pathModule._makeLong(path));
    return true;
  } catch (e) {
    return false;
  }
}

so if you write program like if(fs.existsSync(thepath)){}, it is better to change it to if(fs.statSync(thepath)){}.

Answer 6

I think it because it's redundant. You can check if a file exists by trying to open it. It will give you ENOENT if it doesn't exist:

> fs.open('foo', 'r', function(err, fd) {
    ... console.log(err, fd);
    ... 
})
undefined
> { [Error: ENOENT, open 'foo'] errno: 34, code: 'ENOENT', path: 'foo' } undefined