fs-jetpack

API for your everyday file system manipulations, much more convenient than fs or fs-extra. You will especially appreciate it as a scripting/tooling library and for your build pipelines.

Table of Contents

Key Concepts
Getting Started

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

Key Concepts

Why not use more than one CWD?

You can create many fs-jetpack objects with different internal working directories (which are independent from process.cwd()) and work on directories in a little more object-oriented manner.

const src = jetpack.cwd("path/to/source");
const dest = jetpack.cwd("/some/different/path/to/destination");
src.copy("foo.txt", dest.path("bar.txt"));

JSON is a first class citizen

You can write JavaScript object directly to disk and it will be transformed into JSON automatically.

const obj = { greet: "Hello World!" };
jetpack.write("file.json", obj);

Then you can get your object back just by telling read method that it's a JSON.

const obj = jetpack.read("file.json", "json");

Automatic handling of ENOENT errors

Everyone who has a lot to do with file system probably is sick of seeing error "ENOENT, no such file or directory". Fs-jetpack tries to recover from this.

• For write/creation operations, if any of parent directories doesn't exist jetpack will just create them as well (like mkdir -p works).
• For read/inspect operations, if file or directory doesn't exist undefined is returned instead of throwing.

Sync & async harmony

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

Commonly used naming convention in node.js world has been flipped in this API, so no method() (async) and methodSync() naming. Here the convention is methodAsync() and method() (sync). I know this looks wrong to you, but bear with me. Thanks to that, you always know how fs-jetpack method behaves, just by looking at the name: If you don't see the word "Async", this method returns value immediately, if you do, promise is returned. Standard node.js naming can't give you this clarity.

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

// Asynchronous call
const data = await jetpack.readAsync('file.txt');
console.log(data);

All API methods cooperate nicely with each other

Let's say you want to create folder structure as demonstrated in comment below. Piece of cake!

// .
// |- greets
//    |- greet.txt
//    |- greet.json
// |- greets-i18n
//    |- polish.txt

jetpack
  .dir("greets")
  .file("greet.txt", { content: "Hello world!" })
  .file("greet.json", { content: { greet: "Hello world!" } })
  .cwd("..")
  .dir("greets-i18n")
  .file("polish.txt", { content: "Witaj świecie!" });

Need to copy whole directory of files, but first perform some transformations on each file?

const src = jetpack.cwd("path/to/source/folder");
const dst = jetpack.cwd("path/to/destination");

src.find({ matching: "*" }).forEach((path) => {
  const content = src.read(path);
  const transformedContent = transformTheFileHoweverYouWant(content);
  dst.write(path, transformedContent);
});

Need to delete all temporary and log files inside my_folder tree?

jetpack.find("my_folder", { matching: ["*.tmp", "*.log"] }).forEach(jetpack.remove);

Need to perform temporary data transformations?

const dir = jetpack.tmpDir();
dir.write("data.txt", myData);
// Perform some operations on the data and when you're done
// and don't need the folder any longer just call...
dir.remove();

Getting Started

Installation

npm install fs-jetpack

Import to your code:

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

Usage with TypeScript

Starting from v2.1.0 fs-jetpack is TypeScript compatible. But for backwards compatibility purposes all types and interfaces are reachable through special path fs-jetpack/types.

// Import fs-jetpack into TypeScript code (the jetpack typings will be loaded as well).
import * as jetpack from "fs-jetpack";

// Import one of jetpack's interfaces to cast it on a variable declaration.
import { InspectResult } from "fs-jetpack/types";
let result: InspectResult = jetpack.inspect("foo");

Upgrading to New Version

This API is considered stable and all breaking changes to it are done as completely last resort. It also uses "better safe than sorry" approach to bumping major version number. So in 99.9% of cases you can upgrade to latest version with no worries, because all major version bumps so far, were due to edge case behaviour changes.

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. If false, an error will be thrown if it already exists. If true, the overwrite will be performed (for directories, this overwrite consists of a recursive merge - i.e. only files that already exist in the destination directory will be overwritten). If a 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).
• ignoreCase (default false) whether or not case should be ignored when processing glob patterns passed through the matching option.

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).

If the given path already exists but is not a directory, an error will be thrown.

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 (default "*") glob patterns of files you want to find (all possible globs are described further in this readme).
• filter (default undefined) function that is called on each matched path with inspect object of that path as an argument. Return true or false to indicate whether given path should stay on list or should be filtered out (see example below).
• 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).
• ignoreCase (false otherwise) whether or not case should be ignored when processing glob patterns passed through the matching option.

returns:
Array of found paths.

examples:

// Finds all files inside 'foo' directory and its subdirectories
jetpack.find("foo");

// 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 '.txt' files that were modified after 2019-01-01
const borderDate = new Date("2019-01-01")
jetpack.find("foo", {
  matching: "*.txt",
  filter: (inspectObj) => {
    return inspectObj.modifyTime > borderDate
  }
});

// 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 });

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

// You can chain find() with different jetpack methods for more power.
// For example lets delete all `.tmp` files inside `foo` directory
jetpack
  .find("foo", {
    matching: "*.tmp"
  })
  .forEach(jetpack.remove);

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 a 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, changeTime and birthTime).
• 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],
  birthTime: [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).
• times (default false) if set to true will add atime, mtime and ctime fields (here called accessTime, modifyTime and changeTime) to each tree node.
• 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, [options])

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

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.
options (optional) additional options for customization. Is an Object with possible fields:

• overwrite (default: false) Whether to overwrite destination path when it already exists. If true, the overwrite will be performed.

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, [options])

asynchronous: renameAsync(path, newName, [options])

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).
options (optional) additional options for customization. Is an Object with possible fields:

• overwrite (default: false) Whether to overwrite destination path when it already exists. If true, the overwrite will be performed.

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.

tmpDir([options])

asynchronous: tmpDirAsync([options])

Creates temporary directory with random, unique name.

arguments:
options (optional) Object with possible fields:

• prefix prefix to be added to created random directory name. Defaults to none.
• basePath the path where temporary directory should be created. Defaults to https://nodejs.org/api/os.html#os_os_tmpdir.

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

examples:

// Creates temporary directory, e.g. /tmp/90ed0f0f4a0ba3b1433c5b51ad8fc76b
// You can interact with this directory by returned CWD context.
const dirContext = jetpack.tmpDir();

// Creates temporary directory with a prefix, e.g. /tmp/foo_90ed0f0f4a0ba3b1433c5b51ad8fc76b
jetpack.tmpDir({ prefix: "foo_" });

// Creates temporary directory on given path, e.g. /some/other/path/90ed0f0f4a0ba3b1433c5b51ad8fc76b
jetpack.tmpDir({ basePath: "/some/other/path" });

// Creates temporary directory on jetpack.cwd() path
jetpack.tmpDir({ basePath: "." });

// The method returns new jetpack context, so you can easily clean your
// temp files after you're done.
const dir = jetpack.tmpDir();
dir.write("foo.txt", data);
// ...and when you're done using the dir...
dir.remove();

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:

• mode file will be created with given mode. Value could be number (eg. 0o700) or string (eg. '700').
• 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)