from sql - checking if a file exists in a given share

Hi,
from sql, what is the best way to check if a file exists in a share - given
the file's partial name (for example the first 20 characters) ?
I thought about saving the result set of "xp_cmdShell dir shareName ... "
into a temp table and query the temp table for the filename... but are there
better ways that do not require xp_cmdShell (that needs special permissions
to execute)?
ThanksYou could try using the sp_OA* procedures and the FileSystemObject in VBS.
ML
http://milambda.blogspot.com/|||This sounds interesting. Could you please point me to where I can find
sample code?
Thank you.
"ML" <ML@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D4DE0DE1-BA83-4810-B385-FC6005DE4B45@.microsoft.com...
> You could try using the sp_OA* procedures and the FileSystemObject in VBS.
>
> ML
> --
> http://milambda.blogspot.com/|||A few samples are available in Books Online, the rest comes down to your
experience with VBS.
This sample demonstrates the use of the sp_OA* procedures:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...r />
_2ktw.asp
ML
http://milambda.blogspot.com/|||If your on 2005, you could do a UDF such as:
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;
using System.IO;
public partial class UserDefinedFunctions
{
[Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlFunction]
public static bool FileExists(string path)
{
return File.Exists(path);
}
};
William Stacey [MVP]
"Ramadan" <noOne@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eIcSTaPAGHA.532@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> from sql, what is the best way to check if a file exists in a share -
> given
> the file's partial name (for example the first 20 characters) ?
> I thought about saving the result set of "xp_cmdShell dir shareName ...
> "
> into a temp table and query the temp table for the filename... but are
> there
> better ways that do not require xp_cmdShell (that needs special
> permissions
> to execute)?
> Thanks
>|||You can check this via the undocumented procedure (but be aware that
this is undocumented, not supported and could be deppricated in further
versions):
http://www.sql-server-performance.c..._procedures.asp
xp_fileexist
You can use this extended stored procedure to determine whether a
particular file exists on the disk or not. The syntax for this xp is:
EXECUTE xp_fileexist filename [, file_exists INT OUTPUT]
For example, to check whether the file boot.ini exists on disk c: or
not, run:
EXEC master..xp_fileexist 'c:\boot.ini'
HTH, jens Suessmeyer.sql