fs.markdown

File System

File I/O is provided by simple wrappers around standard POSIX functions. To use this module do require('fs'). All the methods have asynchronous and synchronous forms.

The asynchronous form always take a completion callback as its last argument. The arguments passed to the completion callback depend on the method, but the first argument is always reserved for an exception. If the operation was completed successfully, then the first argument will be null or undefined.

Here is an example of the asynchronous version:

var fs = require('fs');

fs.unlink('/tmp/hello', function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('successfully deleted /tmp/hello');
});

Here is the synchronous version:

var fs = require('fs');

fs.unlinkSync('/tmp/hello')
console.log('successfully deleted /tmp/hello');

With the asynchronous methods there is no guaranteed ordering. So the following is prone to error:

fs.rename('/tmp/hello', '/tmp/world', function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('renamed complete');
});
fs.stat('/tmp/world', function (err, stats) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('stats: ' + JSON.stringify(stats));
});

It could be that fs.stat is executed before fs.rename. The correct way to do this is to chain the callbacks.

fs.rename('/tmp/hello', '/tmp/world', function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  fs.stat('/tmp/world', function (err, stats) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log('stats: ' + JSON.stringify(stats));
  });
});

In busy processes, the programmer is strongly encouraged to use the asynchronous versions of these calls. The synchronous versions will block the entire process until they complete--halting all connections.

Relative path to filename can be used, remember however that this path will be relative to process.cwd().

fs.rename(path1, path2, [callback])

Asynchronous rename(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.renameSync(path1, path2)

Synchronous rename(2).

fs.truncate(fd, len, [callback])

Asynchronous ftruncate(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.truncateSync(fd, len)

Synchronous ftruncate(2).

fs.chown(path, uid, gid, [callback])

Asycnronous chown(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.chownSync(path, uid, gid)

Synchronous chown(2).

fs.fchown(path, uid, gid, [callback])

Asycnronous fchown(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.fchownSync(path, uid, gid)

Synchronous fchown(2).

fs.lchown(path, uid, gid, [callback])

Asycnronous lchown(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.lchownSync(path, uid, gid)

Synchronous lchown(2).

fs.chmod(path, mode, [callback])

Asynchronous chmod(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.chmodSync(path, mode)

Synchronous chmod(2).

fs.fchmod(fd, mode, [callback])

Asynchronous fchmod(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.fchmodSync(path, mode)

Synchronous fchmod(2).

fs.lchmod(fd, mode, [callback])

Asynchronous lchmod(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.lchmodSync(path, mode)

Synchronous lchmod(2).

fs.stat(path, [callback])

Asynchronous stat(2). The callback gets two arguments (err, stats) where stats is a fs.Stats object. It looks like this:

{ dev: 2049,
  ino: 305352,
  mode: 16877,
  nlink: 12,
  uid: 1000,
  gid: 1000,
  rdev: 0,
  size: 4096,
  blksize: 4096,
  blocks: 8,
  atime: '2009-06-29T11:11:55Z',
  mtime: '2009-06-29T11:11:40Z',
  ctime: '2009-06-29T11:11:40Z' }

See the fs.Stats section below for more information.

fs.lstat(path, [callback])

Asynchronous lstat(2). The callback gets two arguments (err, stats) where stats is a fs.Stats object. lstat() is identical to stat(), except that if path is a symbolic link, then the link itself is stat-ed, not the file that it refers to.

fs.fstat(fd, [callback])

Asynchronous fstat(2). The callback gets two arguments (err, stats) where stats is a fs.Stats object. fstat() is identical to stat(), except that the file to be stat-ed is specified by the file descriptor fd.

fs.statSync(path)

Synchronous stat(2). Returns an instance of fs.Stats.

fs.lstatSync(path)

Synchronous lstat(2). Returns an instance of fs.Stats.

fs.fstatSync(fd)

Synchronous fstat(2). Returns an instance of fs.Stats.

fs.link(srcpath, dstpath, [callback])

Asynchronous link(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.linkSync(srcpath, dstpath)

Synchronous link(2).

fs.symlink(linkdata, path, [callback])

Asynchronous symlink(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.symlinkSync(linkdata, path)

Synchronous symlink(2).

fs.readlink(path, [callback])

Asynchronous readlink(2). The callback gets two arguments (err, resolvedPath).

fs.readlinkSync(path)

Synchronous readlink(2). Returns the resolved path.

fs.realpath(path, [callback])

Asynchronous realpath(2). The callback gets two arguments (err, resolvedPath).

fs.realpathSync(path)

Synchronous realpath(2). Returns the resolved path.

fs.unlink(path, [callback])

Asynchronous unlink(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.unlinkSync(path)

Synchronous unlink(2).

fs.rmdir(path, [callback])

Asynchronous rmdir(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.rmdirSync(path)

Synchronous rmdir(2).

fs.mkdir(path, mode, [callback])

Asynchronous mkdir(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.mkdirSync(path, mode)

Synchronous mkdir(2).

fs.readdir(path, [callback])

Asynchronous readdir(3). Reads the contents of a directory. The callback gets two arguments (err, files) where files is an array of the names of the files in the directory excluding '.' and '..'.

fs.readdirSync(path)

Synchronous readdir(3). Returns an array of filenames excluding '.' and '..'.

fs.close(fd, [callback])

Asynchronous close(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.closeSync(fd)

Synchronous close(2).

fs.open(path, flags, [mode], [callback])

Asynchronous file open. See open(2). flags can be:

• 'r' - Open file for reading. An exception occurs if the file does not exist.

• 'r+' - Open file for reading and writing. An exception occurs if the file does not exist.

• 'w' - Open file for writing. The file is created (if it does not exist) or truncated (if it exists).

• 'w+' - Open file for reading and writing. The file is created (if it does not exist) or truncated (if it exists).

• 'a' - Open file for appending. The file is created if it does not exist.

• 'a+' - Open file for reading and appending. The file is created if it does not exist.

mode defaults to 0666. The callback gets two arguments (err, fd).

fs.openSync(path, flags, [mode])

Synchronous open(2).

fs.write(fd, buffer, offset, length, position, [callback])

Write buffer to the file specified by fd.

offset and length determine the part of the buffer to be written.

position refers to the offset from the beginning of the file where this data should be written. If position is null, the data will be written at the current position. See pwrite(2).

The callback will be given three arguments (err, written, buffer) where written specifies how many bytes were written into buffer.

Note that it is unsafe to use fs.write multiple times on the same file without waiting for the callback. For this scenario, fs.createWriteStream is strongly recommended.

fs.writeSync(fd, buffer, offset, length, position)

Synchronous version of buffer-based fs.write(). Returns the number of bytes written.

fs.writeSync(fd, str, position, encoding='utf8')

Synchronous version of string-based fs.write(). Returns the number of bytes written.

fs.read(fd, buffer, offset, length, position, [callback])

Read data from the file specified by fd.

buffer is the buffer that the data will be written to.

offset is offset within the buffer where writing will start.

length is an integer specifying the number of bytes to read.

position is an integer specifying where to begin reading from in the file. If position is null, data will be read from the current file position.

The callback is given the three arguments, (err, bytesRead, buffer).

fs.readSync(fd, buffer, offset, length, position)

Synchronous version of buffer-based fs.read. Returns the number of bytesRead.

fs.readSync(fd, length, position, encoding)

Synchronous version of string-based fs.read. Returns the number of bytesRead.

fs.readFile(filename, [encoding], [callback])

Asynchronously reads the entire contents of a file. Example:

fs.readFile('/etc/passwd', function (err, data) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(data);
});

The callback is passed two arguments (err, data), where data is the contents of the file.

If no encoding is specified, then the raw buffer is returned.

fs.readFileSync(filename, [encoding])

Synchronous version of fs.readFile. Returns the contents of the filename.

If encoding is specified then this function returns a string. Otherwise it returns a buffer.

fs.writeFile(filename, data, encoding='utf8', [callback])

Asynchronously writes data to a file, replacing the file if it already exists. data can be a string or a buffer.

Example:

fs.writeFile('message.txt', 'Hello Node', function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('It\'s saved!');
});

fs.writeFileSync(filename, data, encoding='utf8')

The synchronous version of fs.writeFile.

fs.watchFile(filename, [options], listener)

Watch for changes on filename. The callback listener will be called each time the file is accessed.

The second argument is optional. The options if provided should be an object containing two members a boolean, persistent, and interval, a polling value in milliseconds. The default is { persistent: true, interval: 0 }.

The listener gets two arguments the current stat object and the previous stat object:

fs.watchFile('message.text', function (curr, prev) {
  console.log('the current mtime is: ' + curr.mtime);
  console.log('the previous mtime was: ' + prev.mtime);
});

These stat objects are instances of fs.Stat.

If you want to be notified when the file was modified, not just accessed you need to compare curr.mtime and prev.mtime.

fs.unwatchFile(filename)

Stop watching for changes on filename.

fs.Stats

Objects returned from fs.stat() and fs.lstat() are of this type.

• stats.isFile()
• stats.isDirectory()
• stats.isBlockDevice()
• stats.isCharacterDevice()
• stats.isSymbolicLink() (only valid with fs.lstat())
• stats.isFIFO()
• stats.isSocket()

fs.ReadStream

ReadStream is a Readable Stream.

Event: 'open'

function (fd) { }

fd is the file descriptor used by the ReadStream.

fs.createReadStream(path, [options])

Returns a new ReadStream object (See Readable Stream).

options is an object with the following defaults:

{ flags: 'r',
  encoding: null,
  fd: null,
  mode: 0666,
  bufferSize: 64 * 1024
}

options can include start and end values to read a range of bytes from the file instead of the entire file. Both start and end are inclusive and start at 0.

An example to read the last 10 bytes of a file which is 100 bytes long:

fs.createReadStream('sample.txt', {start: 90, end: 99});

fs.WriteStream

WriteStream is a Writable Stream.

Event: 'open'

function (fd) { }

fd is the file descriptor used by the WriteStream.

fs.createWriteStream(path, [options])

Returns a new WriteStream object (See Writable Stream).

options is an object with the following defaults:

{ flags: 'w',
  encoding: null,
  mode: 0666 }