Do you want a faster File.Exists / FileInfo.Exists / Directory.Exists ? I do !

Sometimes you need to check the existence of a file. Nothing is easier with the .Net framework which provide a property named Exists on FileInfo class.

But it can be quite long, especially when the file is on a network drive. If so you’ll have to wait for a time-out to know that the file is not reachable.

This was too slow for me so I coded this little utility which performs the same but with a customizable TimeOut. As it may interest you, here it is:

private static bool VerifyFileExists(Uri uri, int timeout)
{
    var task = new Task<bool>(() =>
    {
        var fi = new FileInfo(uri.LocalPath);
        return fi.Exists;
    });
    task.Start();
    return task.Wait(timeout) && task.Result;
}

Enjoy !