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If the programmer's intent is to not remove an existing destination file, the POSIX {{access()}} function can be used to check for the existence of a file \[[Open Group 04|AA. C References#Open Group 04]\]. This compliant solution only renames the source file only if the destination file does not exist.

On Windows, the [{{rename()}}|http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zw5t957f(VS.80).aspx] function fails if \[[MSDN|AA. C References#MSDN]\]:

\[[ISO/IEC 9899:1999|AA. C References#ISO/IEC 9899-1999]\] Section 7.9.4.2, "The {{rename}} function"
\[[MSDN|AA. C References#MSDN]\] [{{rename()}}|http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zw5t957f(VS.80).aspx]
\[[Open Group 04|AA. C References#Open Group 04]\] [{{access()}}|http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/access.html]