Recursive file operations in Node.js
-While I love Node.js, I've found myself missing some functions. Things like -recursively deleting/chmodding a directory (or even deep copying a directory), -or even a basic line reader, shouldn't need to be re-invented time and time again.
- -That said, here's my attempt at a re-usable solution, at least until something -more formalized gets integrated into Node.js (*hint hint*). wrench.js is fairly simple -to use - check out the documentation/examples below:
- -In previous versions of Wrench, we went against the OS-default behavior of not -deleting a directory unless the operation is forced. In 1.5.0, this has been -changed to be the behavior people expect there to be - if you try to copy over -a directory that already exists, you'll get an Error returned or thrown stating -that you need to force it.
- -Something like this will do the trick:
- -wrench.copyDirSyncRecursive('directory_to_copy', 'location_where_copy_should_end_up', {
- forceDelete: true
-});
-If you desire the older behavior of Wrench... hit up your package.json. If you -happen to find bugs in the 1.5.0 release please feel free to file them on the -GitHub issues tracker for this project, or send me a pull request and I'll get to -it as fast as I can. Thanks!
- -If this breaks enough projects I will consider rolling it back. Please hit me up if this seems to be the case.
- -npm install wrench
-var wrench = require('wrench'),
- util = require('util');
-// Recursively create directories, sub-trees and all.
-wrench.mkdirSyncRecursive(dir, 0777);
-
-// Recursively delete the entire sub-tree of a directory, then kill the directory
-wrench.rmdirSyncRecursive('my_directory_name', failSilently);
-
-// Recursively read directories contents.
-wrench.readdirSyncRecursive('my_directory_name');
-
-// Recursively chmod the entire sub-tree of a directory
-wrench.chmodSyncRecursive('my_directory_name', 0755);
-
-// Recursively chown the entire sub-tree of a directory
-wrench.chownSyncRecursive("directory", uid, gid);
-
-// Deep-copy an existing directory
-wrench.copyDirSyncRecursive('directory_to_copy', 'location_where_copy_should_end_up', {
- forceDelete: bool, // Whether to overwrite existing directory or not
- excludeHiddenUnix: bool, // Whether to copy hidden Unix files or not (preceding .)
- preserveFiles: bool, // If we're overwriting something and the file already exists, keep the existing
- inflateSymlinks: bool, // Whether to follow symlinks or not when copying files
- filter: regexp, // A filter to match files against; if matches, do nothing (exclude).
- whitelist: bool, // if true every file or directory which doesn't match filter will be ignored
-});
-
-// Read lines in from a file until you hit the end
-var f = new wrench.LineReader('x.txt');
-while(f.hasNextLine()) {
- util.puts(f.getNextLine());
-}
-
-// Note: You will need to close that above line reader at some point, otherwise
-// you will run into a "too many open files" error. f.close() or fs.closeSync(f.fd) are
-// your friends, as only you know when it is safe to close.
-// Recursively read directories contents
-var files = [];
-wrench.readdirRecursive('my_directory_name', function(error, curFiles) {
- // curFiles is what you want
-});
-
-// If you're feeling somewhat masochistic
-wrench.copyDirRecursive(srcDir, newDir, {forceDelete: bool /* See sync version */}, callbackfn);
-Questions, comments? Hit me up. (ryan [at] venodesigns.net | http://twitter.com/ryanmcgrath)
-