Add g_file_query_exists (#508771)

2008-01-16  Alexander Larsson  <alexl@redhat.com>

        * gfile.[ch]:
        * gio.symbols:
        Add g_file_query_exists (#508771)


svn path=/trunk/; revision=6319

4 files changed, 56 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/gio/ChangeLog b/gio/ChangeLog
index 99abddd7e..0d0da7672 100644
--- a/gio/ChangeLog
+++ b/gio/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2008-01-16  Alexander Larsson  <alexl@redhat.com>
+
+        * gfile.[ch]:
+        * gio.symbols:
+        Add g_file_query_exists (#508771)
+
 2008-01-15  Murray Cumming  <murrayc@murrayc.com>
 
 	* gdrive.c:
diff --git a/gio/gfile.c b/gio/gfile.c
index 84611ce7c..3cc7579a8 100644
--- a/gio/gfile.c
+++ b/gio/gfile.c
@@ -812,6 +812,53 @@ g_file_enumerate_children_finish (GFile         *file,
   return (* iface->enumerate_children_finish) (file, res, error);
 }
 
+/**
+ * g_file_query_exists:
+ * @file: input #GFile.
+ * @cancellable: optional #GCancellable object, %NULL to ignore.
+ *
+ * Utility function to check if a particular file exists. This is
+ * implemented using g_file_query_info() and as such does blocking I/O.
+ *
+ * Note that in many cases it is racy to first check for file existance
+ * and then execute something based on the outcome of that, because the
+ * file might have been created or removed inbetween the operations. The
+ * general approach to handling that is to not check, but just do the
+ * operation and handle the errors as they come.
+ *
+ * As an example of race-free checking. Take the case of reading a file, and
+ * if it doesn't exist, create it. There are two racy versions: read it, and
+ * on error create it; and: check if it exists, if not create it. These
+ * can both result in two processes creating the file (with perhaps a partially
+ * written file as the result). The correct approach is to always try to create
+ * the file with g_file_create() which will either atomically create the file
+ * or fail with an G_IO_ERROR_EXISTS error.
+ *
+ * However, in many cases an existance check is useful in a user
+ * interface, for instance to make a menu item sensitive/insensitive, so that
+ * you don't have to fool users that something is possible and then just show
+ * and error dialog. If you do this, you should make sure to also handle the
+ * errors that can happen due to races when you execute the operation.
+ * 
+ * Returns: %TRUE if the file exists (and can be detected without error), %FALSE otherwise (or if cancelled).
+ */
+gboolean
+g_file_query_exists (GFile *file,
+		     GCancellable *cancellable)
+{
+  GFileInfo *info;
+
+  info = g_file_query_info (file, G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_STANDARD_TYPE,
+			    G_FILE_QUERY_INFO_NONE,
+			    cancellable, NULL);
+  if (info != NULL)
+    {
+      g_object_unref (info);
+      return TRUE;
+    }
+  
+  return FALSE;
+}
 
 /**
  * g_file_query_info:
diff --git a/gio/gfile.h b/gio/gfile.h
index 0fd571883..8d8ee6b8c 100644
--- a/gio/gfile.h
+++ b/gio/gfile.h
@@ -612,6 +612,8 @@ void                    g_file_replace_async              (GFile
 GFileOutputStream *     g_file_replace_finish             (GFile                      *file,
 							   GAsyncResult               *res,
 							   GError                    **error);
+gboolean                g_file_query_exists               (GFile                      *file,
+							   GCancellable               *cancellable);
 GFileInfo *             g_file_query_info                 (GFile                      *file,
 							   const char                 *attributes,
 							   GFileQueryInfoFlags         flags,
diff --git a/gio/gio.symbols b/gio/gio.symbols
index e679f789a..d15e53d3f 100644
--- a/gio/gio.symbols
+++ b/gio/gio.symbols
@@ -243,6 +243,7 @@ g_file_create_async
 g_file_create_finish
 g_file_replace_async
 g_file_replace_finish
+g_file_query_exists
 g_file_query_info
 g_file_query_info_async
 g_file_query_info_finish