fs

What is fs?

The 'fs' package in Node.js is a core module providing file system related functionality. It allows for interacting with the file system in a way similar to standard POSIX functions.

What are fs's main functionalities?

Reading files

This feature allows you to read the contents of a file asynchronously. The example shows reading a text file and logging its contents.

const fs = require('fs');
fs.readFile('/path/to/file', 'utf8', (err, data) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(data);
});

Writing files

This feature enables writing data to a file. In the example, a new file is created with the text 'Hello World!'

const fs = require('fs');
fs.writeFile('/path/to/file', 'Hello World!', (err) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('File has been saved!');
});

Watching files

This feature allows you to watch for changes in a file or directory. The example logs the type of event and the filename involved.

const fs = require('fs');
fs.watch('/path/to/file', (eventType, filename) => {
  console.log(`Event type is: ${eventType}`);
  if (filename) {
    console.log(`Filename provided: ${filename}`);
  } else {
    console.log('Filename not provided');
  }
});

Other packages similar to fs

graceful-fs

Enhances the fs module, mainly by making it more robust to various types of errors and by adding queueing to operations. It is a drop-in replacement that handles errors more gracefully and avoids EMFILE errors by queuing.

fs-extra

Builds upon the fs module by adding file system methods that aren't included in the native fs module, such as copying directories and files, and removing directories. It offers more comprehensive file handling capabilities.

chokidar

A more powerful alternative for watching files and directories in Node.js. It provides a high-level API over node.js fs.watch/fs.watchFile and adds more features and reliability, particularly in scenarios involving complex file watching needs.