infer-owner

What is infer-owner?

The infer-owner npm package is designed to infer the owner of a file or directory based on the ownership of its parent directories. It is particularly useful in file system operations where maintaining the correct file ownership is crucial, such as in deployment scripts or file management utilities. This package helps ensure that files and directories are created with the appropriate ownership, reflecting the ownership of their parent directories, thus maintaining consistency and security in file operations.

What are infer-owner's main functionalities?

Infer ownership of a file or directory

This feature allows you to infer the ownership (user ID and group ID) of a file or directory by analyzing its parent directories. The function returns a Promise that resolves with an object containing the `uid` and `gid` of the inferred owner.

const inferOwner = require('infer-owner');

inferOwner('/path/to/file/or/directory').then(owner => {
  console.log(owner); // { uid: 1000, gid: 1000 }
});

Other packages similar to infer-owner

chownr

Similar to infer-owner, chownr is designed to recursively change the ownership of a directory (and its contents) to the specified user and group. While infer-owner infers the ownership from existing parent directories, chownr requires the user to explicitly specify the desired ownership.

fs-extra

fs-extra extends the built-in Node.js fs module with additional functionality, including methods for changing file ownership. Although fs-extra does not specifically focus on inferring ownership like infer-owner, it provides a broader set of file system operations, including changing ownership.

README

infer-owner

Infer the owner of a path based on the owner of its nearest existing parent

USAGE

const inferOwner = require('infer-owner')

inferOwner('/some/cache/folder/file').then(owner => {
  // owner is {uid, gid} that should be attached to
  // the /some/cache/folder/file, based on ownership
  // of /some/cache/folder, /some/cache, /some, or /,
  // whichever is the first to exist
})

// same, but not async
const owner = inferOwner.sync('/some/cache/folder/file')

// results are cached!  to reset the cache (eg, to change
// permissions for whatever reason), do this:
inferOwner.clearCache()

This module endeavors to be as performant as possible. Parallel requests for ownership of the same path will only stat the directories one time.

API

• inferOwner(path) -> Promise<{ uid, gid }>

  If the path exists, return its uid and gid. If it does not, look to its parent, then its grandparent, and so on.

• inferOwner(path) -> { uid, gid }

  Sync form of inferOwner(path).

• inferOwner.clearCache()

  Delete all cached ownership information and in-flight tracking.