2 files changed, 31 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/butl/filesystem b/butl/filesystem
index e6aaa20..3de1fcb 100644
--- a/butl/filesystem
+++ b/butl/filesystem
@@ -51,6 +51,16 @@ namespace butl
   inline bool
   dir_exists (const path& p) {return dir_exists (p.string ().c_str ());}
 
+  // Return true if the path is to an existing file system entry. Note that by
+  // default this function doesn't follow symlinks.
+  //
+  LIBBUTL_EXPORT bool
+  entry_exists (const char*, bool follow_symlinks = false);
+
+  inline bool
+  entry_exists (const path& p, bool fs = false) {
+    return entry_exists (p.string ().c_str (), fs);}
+
   // Return true if the directory is empty. Note that the path must exist
   // and be a directory.
   //
diff --git a/butl/filesystem.cxx b/butl/filesystem.cxx
index a47140d..424e361 100644
--- a/butl/filesystem.cxx
+++ b/butl/filesystem.cxx
@@ -66,6 +66,27 @@ namespace butl
   }
 #endif
 
+#ifndef _WIN32
+  bool
+  entry_exists (const char* p, bool fl)
+  {
+    struct stat s;
+    if ((fl ? stat (p, &s) : lstat (p, &s)) == 0)
+#else
+  bool
+  entry_exists (const char* p, bool)
+  {
+    struct _stat s;
+    if (_stat (p, &s) == 0)
+#endif
+      return true;
+
+    if (errno == ENOENT || errno == ENOTDIR)
+      return false;
+
+    throw system_error (errno, system_category ());
+  }
+
   bool
   dir_exists (const char* p)
   {