code: def path_exists(path, properties=None, hadoop_conf_dir=None):
      
      try:
          dfs(["-stat", path], properties, hadoop_conf_dir=hadoop_conf_dir)
      except RuntimeError:
          return False
      return True
docs: Return :obj:`True` if ``path`` exists in the default HDFS.
  
      Keyword arguments are passed to :func:`dfs`.
  
      This function does the same thing as :func:`hdfs.path.exists
      <pydoop.hdfs.path.exists>`, but it uses a wrapper for the Hadoop
      shell rather than the hdfs extension.