>>I assume that you saw my exchange with Sergey. Now if you're just trying to find out whether or not a given file exists, then I'd just create a stored procedure to return the result of the call to xp_fileexist.
>>
>>Just one cautionary note, for lurkers. Access to the xp_cmdshell in particular should be restricted to users with sysadmin priviledges.
>
>Hi George,
>
>Yes and this has been a profitible thread for me. Got the info I needed and reminded me of some "tricks" that have to be used in some circumstances.
>
>Good point on the privileges. Definitely want to limit who can get to these procs since they give access to the underlying OS and file system and unless the proc is executed under a sysadmin ID, specific rights have to be granted in order to run them.
>
>Do wish MS would doc these "undocumented" procs. :-)

As I mentioned in my other post, it isn't in the 2000 version of the books on-line.

I just did some quick checking. It isn't mentioned in either "Inside SQL Server 7.0" or "SQL Server 7.0 Programming Unleashed". In fact, in the latter, it uses xp_cmdshell to check for the existence of a file.

My gut reaction to the fact that they're not documented is that they're not supported either. Even though MS did provide some documentation for Foxtools, for example, it was neither complete, nor was the library officially supported. As a result, it might be better to use xp_cmdshell instead.