mkfiletree

mkfiletree

Serialize an object to a file/directory tree. Available in npm as mkfiletree

Serialize an object to a file/directory tree

Particularly useful for making test fixtures where you need to create a non-trivial tree of files and don't want to have to mock out fs. See readfiletree for file tree deserialization.

API

makeTemp(prefix, tree, callback)

Make a directory & file tree in the system's temporary directory, under a uniquely named subdirectory prefixed with the prefix argument. The callback will receive an error argument and a dir telling you the full path to the root directory created for you.

Using both mkfiletree and readfiletree we can do the following:

require('mkfiletree').makeTemp(
  'testfiles',
  {
    'adir': {
      'one.txt': '1\n2\n3\n',
      'two.txt': 'a\nb\nc\n',
      'deeper': {
        'depths.txt': 'whoa...'
      }
    },
    'afile.txt': 'file contents'
  },
  function (err, dir) {
    require('readfiletree')(dir, function (err, obj) {
      console.log(obj)
    })
  }
)

The directory structre created above looks like the following:

$ find /tmp/testfiles11240-23530-r7rs3 -type f -exec sh -c "echo '\n{}: ' && cat '{}'" \;
  →  /tmp/testfiles11240-23530-r7rs3/afile.txt: 
      file contents
      /tmp/testfiles11240-23530-r7rs3/adir/deeper/depths.txt: 
      whoa...
      /tmp/testfiles11240-23530-r7rs3/adir/two.txt: 
      a
      b
      c

      /tmp/testfiles11240-23530-r7rs3/adir/one.txt: 
      1
      2
      3

And the output of the program should be the same as the input to mkfiletree:

{
  'adir': {
    'one.txt': '1\n2\n3\n',
    'two.txt': 'a\nb\nc\n',
    'deeper': {
      'depths.txt': 'whoa...'
    }
  },
  'afile.txt': 'file contents'
}

cleanUp(callback)

Clean up any temporary directories created with makeTemp() since the last cleanUp() call or the begining of the current process. Callback has an error argument if there was a problem deleting the directory & file tree.

make(root, tree, callback)

Same as makeTemp() but you specify the exact root path to be created which will contain your directory tree. The callback also receives the error and dir arguments. Directories created with make() won't be removed with a cleanUp() call.

Contributing

Tests can be run with npm test. I'm more than happy to receive contributions so fork away!

Synchronous version

No, there is no sync version, do it async, it's good for your health and contains additional vitamin C, B1, B2 and folate.

License

mkfiletree is Copyright (c) 2014 Rod Vagg @rvagg and licenced under the MIT licence. All rights not explicitly granted in the MIT license are reserved. See the included LICENSE.md file for more details.