file_exists($path) => BOOL

This routine is just like the -e test, except that it assume symlinks with non-existent target as existing. If "sym" is a symlink to a non-existing target:

 -e "sym"             # false, Perl performs stat() which follows symlink

but:

 -l "sym"             # true, Perl performs lstat()
 -e _                 # false

This function performs the following test:

 !(-l "sym") && (-e _) || (-l _)

l_abs_path($path) => STR

Just like Cwd::abs_path(), except that it will not follow symlink if $path is symlink (but it will follow symlinks for the parent paths).

Example:

 use Cwd qw(getcwd abs_path);
 say getcwd();              # /home/steven
 # s is a symlink to /tmp/foo
 say abs_path("s");         # /tmp/foo
 say l_abs_path("s");       # /home/steven/s
 # s2 is a symlink to /tmp
 say abs_path("s2/foo");    # /tmp/foo
 say l_abs_path("s2/foo");  # /tmp/foo

Mnemonic: l_abs_path -> abs_path is analogous to lstat -> stat.

Note: currently uses hardcoded "/" as path separator.

dir_empty($dir) => BOOL

Will return true if $dir exists and is empty.

None are exported by default, but they are exportable.

Where is file_empty()?

For checking if some path exists, is a regular file, and is empty (content is zero-length), you can simply use the "-z" filetest operator.