fs-jetpack

Node's fs library is very low level and because of that often painful to use. fs-jetpack wants to fix that by giving you completely rethought, much more convenient API to work with file system.

Check out EXAMPLES to see few snippets what it can do.

Table of Contents

Installation
Sync & Async

API:
append
copy
createReadStream
createWriteStream
cwd
dir
exists
file
find
inspect
inspectTree
list
move
path
read
remove
rename
symlink
write

Installation

npm install fs-jetpack

Usage

const jetpack = require('fs-jetpack');

Sync & Async

API has the same set of synchronous and asynchronous methods. All async methods are promise based (no callbacks).

Commonly used naming convention in Node world is reversed in this library (no 'method' and 'methodSync' naming). Asynchronous methods are those with 'Async' suffix, all methods without 'Async' in the name are synchronous. Reason behind this is that it gives very nice look to blocking API. And promise-based, non-blocking code is verbose anyway, so one more word is not much of a difference.

Also it's just convenient...

If you don't see the word "Async" in method name it returns value immediately.

const data = jetpack.read('file.txt');
console.log(data);

When you see "Async" that method returns promise which when resolved returns value.

jetpack.readAsync('file.txt')
.then((data) => {
  console.log(data);
});

API

append(path, data, [options])

asynchronous: appendAsync(path, data, [options])

Appends given data to the end of file. If file or any parent directory doesn't exist it will be created.

arguments:
path the path to file.
data data to append (can be String or Buffer).
options (optional) Object with possible fields:

• mode if the file doesn't exist yet, will be created with given mode. Value could be number (eg. 0o700) or string (eg. '700').

returns:
Nothing.

copy(from, to, [options])

asynchronous: copyAsync(from, to, [options])

Copies given file or directory (with everything inside).

arguments:
from path to location you want to copy.
to path to destination location, where the copy should be placed.
options (optional) additional options for customization. Is an Object with possible fields:

• overwrite (default: false) Whether to overwrite destination path when it already exists. Can be Boolean or Function. For directories, source directory is merged with destination directory. If function was provided, every time there is a file conflict while copying the function will be invoked with inspect objects of both: source and destination file and overwrites the file only if true has been returned from the function (see example below). In async mode, the overwrite function can also return a promise, so you can perform multi step processes to determine if file should be overwritten or not (see example below).
• matching if defined will actually copy only items matching any of specified glob patterns and omit everything else (all possible globs are described further in this readme).

returns:
Nothing.

examples:

// Copies a file (and replaces it if one already exists in 'foo' directory)
jetpack.copy('file.txt', 'foo/file.txt', { overwrite: true });

// Copies files from folder foo_1 to foo_final, but overwrites in
// foo_final only files which are newer in foo_1.
jetpack.copy('foo_1', 'foo_final', {
  overwrite: (srcInspectData, destInspectData) => {
    return srcInspectData.modifyTime > destInspectData.modifyTime;
  }
});

// Asynchronously copies files from folder foo_1 to foo_final,
// but overwrites only files containing "John Doe" string.
jetpack.copyAsync('foo_1', 'foo_final', {
  overwrite: (srcInspectData, destInspectData) => {
      return jetpack.readAsync(srcInspectData.absolutePath,)
      .then((data) => {
        return data.includes('John Doe');
      });
  }
});

// Copies only '.md' files from 'foo' (and subdirectories of 'foo') to 'bar'.
jetpack.copy('foo', 'bar', { matching: '*.md' });
// Copies only '.md' and '.txt' files from 'foo' (and subdirectories of 'foo') to 'bar'.
jetpack.copy('foo', 'bar', { matching: ['*.md', '*.txt'] });

// You can filter previous matches by defining negated pattern further in the order:
// Copies only '.md' files from 'foo' (and subdirectories of 'foo') to 'bar'
// but will skip file '!top-secret.md'.
jetpack.copy('foo', 'bar', { matching: ['*.md', '!top-secret.md'] });
// Copies only '.md' files from 'foo' (and subdirectories of 'foo') to 'bar'
// but will skip all files in 'foo/top-secret' directory.
jetpack.copy('foo', 'bar', { matching: ['*.md', '!top-secret/**/*'] });

// All patterns are anchored to directory you want to copy, not to CWD.
// So in this example directory 'dir1/dir2/images' will be copied
// to 'copied-dir2/images'
jetpack.copy('dir1/dir2', 'copied-dir2', {
    matching: 'images/**'
});

createReadStream(path, [options])

Just an alias to vanilla fs.createReadStream.

createWriteStream(path, [options])

Just an alias to vanilla fs.createWriteStream.

cwd([path...])

Returns Current Working Directory (CWD) for this instance of jetpack, or creates new jetpack object with given path as its internal CWD.

Note: fs-jetpack never changes value of process.cwd(), the CWD we are talking about here is internal value inside every jetpack instance.

arguments:
path... (optional) path (or many path parts) to become new CWD. Could be absolute, or relative. If relative path given new CWD will be resolved basing on current CWD of this jetpack instance.

returns:
If path not specified, returns CWD path of this jetpack object. For main instance of fs-jetpack it is always process.cwd().
If path specified, returns new jetpack object (totally the same thing as main jetpack). The new object resolves paths according to its internal CWD, not the global one (process.cwd()).

examples:

// Let's assume that process.cwd() outputs...
console.log(process.cwd()); // '/one/two/three'
// jetpack.cwd() will always return the same value as process.cwd()
console.log(jetpack.cwd()); // '/one/two/three'

// Now let's create new CWD context...
const jetParent = jetpack.cwd('..');
console.log(jetParent.cwd()); // '/one/two'
// ...and use this new context.
jetParent.dir('four'); // we just created directory '/one/two/four'

// One CWD context can be used to create next CWD context.
const jetParentParent = jetParent.cwd('..');
console.log(jetParentParent.cwd()); // '/one'

// When many parameters specified they are treated as parts of path to resolve
const sillyCwd = jetpack.cwd('a', 'b', 'c');
console.log(sillyCwd.cwd()); // '/one/two/three/a/b/c'

dir(path, [criteria])

asynchronous: dirAsync(path, [criteria])

Ensures that directory on given path exists and meets given criteria. If any criterium is not met it will be after this call. If any parent directory in path doesn't exist it will be created (like mkdir -p).

arguments:
path path to directory to examine.
criteria (optional) criteria to be met by the directory. Is an Object with possible fields:

• empty (default: false) whether directory should be empty (no other files or directories inside). If set to true and directory contains any files or subdirectories all of them will be deleted.
• mode ensures directory has specified mode. If not set and directory already exists, current mode will be preserved. Value could be number (eg. 0o700) or string (eg. '700').

returns:
New CWD context with directory specified in path as CWD (see docs of cwd() method for explanation).

examples:

// Creates directory if doesn't exist
jetpack.dir('new-dir');

// Makes sure directory mode is 0700 and that it's empty
jetpack.dir('empty-dir', { empty: true, mode: '700' });

// Because dir returns new CWD context pointing to just
// created directory you can create dir chains.
jetpack
.dir('main-dir') // creates 'main-dir'
.dir('sub-dir'); // creates 'main-dir/sub-dir'

exists(path)

asynchronous: existsAsync(path)

Checks whether something exists on given path. This method returns values more specific than true/false to protect from errors like "I was expecting directory, but it was a file".

returns:

• false if path doesn't exist.
• "dir" if path is a directory.
• "file" if path is a file.
• "other" if none of the above.

file(path, [criteria])

asynchronous: fileAsync(path, [criteria])

Ensures that file exists and meets given criteria. If any criterium is not met it will be after this call. If any parent directory in path doesn't exist it will be created (like mkdir -p).

arguments:
path path to file to examine.
criteria (optional) criteria to be met by the file. Is an Object with possible fields:

• content sets file content. Can be String, Buffer, Object or Array. If Object or Array given to this parameter data will be written as JSON.
• jsonIndent (defaults to 2) if writing JSON data this tells how many spaces should one indentation have.
• mode ensures file has specified mode. If not set and file already exists, current mode will be preserved. Value could be number (eg. 0o700) or string (eg. '700').

returns:
Jetpack object you called this method on (self).

examples:

// Creates file if doesn't exist
jetpack.file('something.txt');

// Creates file with mode '777' and content 'Hello World!'
jetpack.file('hello.txt', { mode: '777', content: 'Hello World!' });

find([path], searchOptions)

asynchronous: findAsync([path], searchOptions)

Finds in directory specified by path all files fulfilling searchOptions. Returned paths are relative to current CWD of jetpack instance.

arguments:
path (optional, defaults to '.') path to start search in (all subdirectories will be searched).
searchOptions is an Object with possible fields:

• matching glob patterns of files you want to find (all possible globs are described further in this readme).
• files (default true) whether or not should search for files.
• directories (default false) whether or not should search for directories.
• recursive (default true) whether the whole directory tree should be searched recursively, or only one-level of given directory (excluding it's subdirectories).
• symlinks (default false) whether or not should report symlinks found.

returns:
Array of found paths.

examples:

// Finds all files which has 2015 in the name
jetpack.find('my-work', { matching: '*2015*' });

// Finds all '.txt' files inside 'foo/bar' directory and its subdirectories
jetpack.find('foo', { matching: 'bar/**/*.txt' });
// Finds all '.txt' files inside 'foo/bar' directory WITHOUT subdirectories  
jetpack.find('foo', { matching: 'bar/*.txt' });

// Finds all '.js' files inside 'my-project' but excluding those in 'vendor' subtree.
jetpack.find('my-project', { matching: ['*.js', '!vendor/**/*'] });

// Looks for all directories named 'foo' (and will omit all files named 'foo').
jetpack.find('my-work', { matching: ['foo'], files: false, directories: true });

// Finds all '.txt' files inside 'foo' directory WITHOUT subdirectories  
jetpack.find('foo', { matching: './*.txt' });
// This line does the same as the above, but has better performance
// (skips looking in subdirectories)
jetpack.find('foo', { matching: '*.txt', recursive: false });

// finds all dirs (including symlinked dirs) beginning with `plugin-*` in `node_modules`
jetpack.find('node_modules', { matching: 'plugin-*', recursive: false, files: false, directories: true, symlinks: true });

// Path parameter might be omitted and CWD is used as path in that case.
const myStuffDir = jetpack.cwd('my-stuff');
myStuffDir.find({ matching: ['*.md'] });

inspect(path, [options])

asynchronous: inspectAsync(path, [options])

Inspects given path (replacement for fs.stat). Returned object by default contains only very basic, not platform-dependent properties (so you have something e.g. your unit tests can rely on), you can enable more properties through options object.

arguments:
path path to inspect.
options (optional). Possible values:

• checksum if specified will return checksum of inspected file. Possible values are strings 'md5', 'sha1', 'sha256' or 'sha512'. If given path is directory this field is ignored.
• mode (default false) if set to true will add file mode (unix file permissions) value.
• times (default false) if set to true will add atime, mtime and ctime fields (here called accessTime, modifyTime and changeTime).
• absolutePath (default false) if set to true will add absolute path to this resource.
• symlinks (default 'report') if a given path is a symlink by default inspect will report that symlink (not follow it). You can flip this behaviour by setting this option to 'follow'.

returns: undefined if given path doens't exist.
Otherwise Object of structure:

{
  name: "my_dir",
  type: "file", // possible values: "file", "dir", "symlink"
  size: 123, // size in bytes, this is returned only for files
  // if checksum option was specified:
  md5: '900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72',
  // if mode option was set to true:
  mode: 33204,
  // if times option was set to true:
  accessTime: [object Date],
  modifyTime: [object Date],
  changeTime: [object Date]
}

inspectTree(path, [options])

asynchronous: inspectTreeAsync(path, [options])

Calls inspect recursively on given path so it creates tree of all directories and sub-directories inside it.

arguments:
path the starting path to inspect.
options (optional). Possible values:

• checksum if specified will also calculate checksum of every item in the tree. Possible values are strings 'md5', 'sha1', 'sha256' or 'sha512'. Checksums for directories are calculated as checksum of all children' checksums plus their filenames (see example below).
• relativePath if set to true every tree node will have relative path anchored to root inspected folder.
• symlinks (default 'report') if a given path is a symlink by default inspectTree will report that symlink (not follow it). You can flip this behaviour by setting this option to 'follow'.

returns:
undefined if given path doesn't exist. Otherwise tree of inspect objects like:

{
    name: 'my_dir',
    type: 'dir',
    size: 123, // this is combined size of all items in this directory
    relativePath: '.',
    md5: '11c68d9ad988ff4d98768193ab66a646',
    // checksum of this directory was calculated as:
    // md5(child[0].name + child[0].md5 + child[1].name + child[1].md5)
    children: [
        {
            name: 'empty',
            type: 'dir',
            size: 0,
            relativePath: './dir',
            md5: 'd41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e',
            children: []
        },{
            name: 'file.txt',
            type: 'file',
            size: 123,
            relativePath: './file.txt',
            md5: '900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72'
        }
    ]
}

list([path])

asynchronous: listAsync(path)

Lists the contents of directory. Equivalent of fs.readdir.

arguments:
path (optional) path to directory you would like to list. If not specified defaults to CWD.

returns:
Array of file names inside given path, or undefined if given path doesn't exist.

move(from, to)

asynchronous: moveAsync(from, to)

Moves given path to new location.

arguments:
from path to directory or file you want to move.
to path where the thing should be moved.

returns:
Nothing.

path(parts...)

Returns path resolved to internal CWD of this jetpack object.

arguments:
parts strings to join and resolve as path (as many as you like).

returns:
Resolved path as string.

examples:

jetpack.cwd(); // if it returns '/one/two'
jetpack.path(); // this will return the same '/one/two'
jetpack.path('three'); // this will return '/one/two/three'
jetpack.path('..', 'four'); // this will return '/one/four'

read(path, [returnAs])

asynchronous: readAsync(path, [returnAs])

Reads content of file.

arguments:
path path to file.
returnAs (optional) how the content of file should be returned. Is a string with possible values:

• 'utf8' (default) content will be returned as UTF-8 String.
• 'buffer' content will be returned as a Buffer.
• 'json' content will be returned as parsed JSON object.
• 'jsonWithDates' content will be returned as parsed JSON object, and date strings in ISO format will be automatically turned into Date objects.

returns:
File content in specified format, or undefined if file doesn't exist.

remove([path])

asynchronous: removeAsync([path])

Deletes given path, no matter what it is (file, directory or non-empty directory). If path already doesn't exist terminates gracefully without throwing, so you can use it as 'ensure path doesn't exist'.

arguments:
path (optional) path to file or directory you want to remove. If not specified the remove action will be performed on current working directory (CWD).

returns:
Nothing.

examples:

// Deletes file
jetpack.remove('my_work/notes.txt');

// Deletes directory "important_stuff" and everything inside
jetpack.remove('my_work/important_stuff');

// Remove can be called with no parameters and will default to CWD then.
// In this example folder 'my_work' will cease to exist.
const myStuffDir = jetpack.cwd('my_stuff');
myStuffDir.remove();

rename(path, newName)

asynchronous: renameAsync(path, newName)

Renames given file or directory.

arguments:
path path to thing you want to change name of.
newName new name for this thing (not full path, just a name).

returns:
Nothing.

examples:

// The file "my_work/important.md" will be renamed to "my_work/very_important.md"
jetpack.rename('my_work/important.txt', 'very_important.md');

symlink(symlinkValue, path)

asynchronous: symlinkAsync(symlinkValue, path)

Creates symbolic link.

arguments:
symlinkValue path where symbolic link should point.
path path where symbolic link should be put.

returns:
Nothing.

write(path, data, [options])

asynchronous: writeAsync(path, data, [options])

Writes data to file. If any parent directory in path doesn't exist it will be created (like mkdir -p).

arguments:
path path to file.
data data to be written. This could be String, Buffer, Object or Array (if last two used, the data will be outputted into file as JSON).
options (optional) Object with possible fields:

• atomic (default false) if set to true the file will be written using strategy which is much more resistant to data loss. The trick is very simple, read this to get the concept.
• jsonIndent (defaults to 2) if writing JSON data this tells how many spaces should one indentation have.

returns:
Nothing.

Matching patterns

API methods copy and find have matching option. Those are all the possible tokens to use there:

• * - Matches 0 or more characters in a single path portion.
• ? - Matches 1 character.
• ! - Used as the first character in pattern will invert the matching logic (match everything what is not matched by tokens further in this pattern).
• [...] - Matches a range of characters, similar to a RegExp range. If the first character of the range is ! or ^ then it matches any character not in the range.
• @(pattern|pat*|pat?ern) - Matches exactly one of the patterns provided.
• +(pattern|pat*|pat?ern) - Matches one or more occurrences of the patterns provided.
• ?(pattern|pat*|pat?ern) - Matches zero or one occurrence of the patterns provided.
• *(pattern|pat*|pat?ern) - Matches zero or more occurrences of the patterns provided.
• !(pattern|pat*|pat?ern) - Matches anything that does not match any of the patterns provided.
• ** - If a "globstar" is alone in a path portion, then it matches zero or more directories and subdirectories.

(explanation borrowed from glob which is using the same matching library as this project)

License

Released under the MIT license.