The vfile npm package is a virtual file format for text processing systems, which allows for the manipulation and handling of file-related information in a structured and consistent way. It is commonly used in projects involving the processing of markdown, text, and similar content, providing a standardized interface for plugins and utilities.
Creating and modifying virtual files
This feature allows users to create a new virtual file and modify its contents. The example demonstrates creating a vfile with initial content and then appending additional text to it.
const vfile = require('vfile');
const file = vfile({path: './example.txt', contents: 'Hello, world!'});
file.contents += ' Modified content.';
console.log(file.contents);Accessing file metadata
This feature enables users to access metadata of the file such as the path and basename. The example shows how to create a vfile and retrieve its path and basename properties.
const vfile = require('vfile');
const file = vfile({path: './example.txt', contents: 'Hello, world!'});
console.log(file.path); // Outputs: './example.txt'
console.log(file.basename); // Outputs: 'example.txt'Handling errors and messages
This feature is useful for adding error or warning messages to a file, which can be particularly helpful in linting tools or compilers. The example demonstrates adding an error message to a vfile and logging all associated messages.
const vfile = require('vfile');
const file = vfile();
file.message('Unknown error', {line: 1, column: 1});
console.log(file.messages);Vinyl is a virtual file format that is often used in the gulp build system. It is similar to vfile in that it represents file objects in a virtual form, but it is more focused on being used with streams, particularly in the context of gulp's pipelines.
mem-fs provides an in-memory file system which stores file representations similar to vfile. While vfile is designed for text processing with a focus on linting and transformation, mem-fs is geared more towards temporary storage and manipulation of files in memory during tasks like scaffolding or testing.
vfile is a small and browser friendly virtual file format that tracks
metadata about files (such as its path and value) and lint
messages.
VFile(options?)file.cwdfile.datafile.historyfile.messagesfile.valuefile.basenamefile.dirnamefile.extnamefile.pathfile.stemVFile#fail(reason[, options])VFile#info(reason[, options])VFile#message(reason[, options])VFile#toString(encoding?)CompatibleDataDataMapMapMessageOptionsOptionsReporterReporterSettingsValuevfile is part of the unified collective.
unifiedjs.comunifiedjs/collectiveThis package provides a virtual file format. It exposes an API to access the file value, path, metadata about the file, and specifically supports attaching lint messages and errors to certain places in these files.
The virtual file format is useful when dealing with the concept of files in places where you might not be able to access the file system. The message API is particularly useful when making things that check files (as in, linting).
vfile is made for unified, which amongst other things checks files. However, vfile can be used in other projects that deal with parsing, transforming, and serializing data, to build linters, compilers, static site generators, and other build tools.
This is different from the excellent vinyl in that vfile has a
smaller API, a smaller size, and focuses on messages.
This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 16+), install with npm:
npm install vfile
In Deno with esm.sh:
import {VFile} from 'https://esm.sh/vfile@6'
In browsers with esm.sh:
<script type="module">
import {VFile} from 'https://esm.sh/vfile@6?bundle'
</script>
import {VFile} from 'vfile'
const file = new VFile({
path: '~/example.txt',
value: 'Alpha *braavo* charlie.'
})
console.log(file.path) // => '~/example.txt'
console.log(file.dirname) // => '~'
file.extname = '.md'
console.log(file.basename) // => 'example.md'
file.basename = 'index.text'
console.log(file.history) // => ['~/example.txt', '~/example.md', '~/index.text']
file.message('Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?', {
place: {line: 1, column: 8},
source: 'spell',
ruleId: 'typo'
})
console.log(file.messages)
Yields:
[
[~/index.text:1:8: Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?] {
ancestors: undefined,
cause: undefined,
column: 8,
fatal: false,
line: 1,
place: { line: 1, column: 8 },
reason: 'Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?',
ruleId: 'typo',
source: 'spell',
file: '~/index.text'
}
]
This package exports the identifier VFile.
There is no default export.
VFile(options?)Create a new virtual file.
options is treated as:
string or Uint8Array — {value: options}URL — {path: options}VFile — shallow copies its data over to the new fileobject — all fields are shallow copied over to the new filePath related fields are set in the following order (least specific to
most specific): history, path, basename, stem, extname,
dirname.
You cannot set dirname or extname without setting either history,
path, basename, or stem too.
options (Compatible, optional)
— file valueNew instance (VFile).
new VFile()
new VFile('console.log("alpha");')
new VFile(new Uint8Array([0x65, 0x78, 0x69, 0x74, 0x20, 0x31]))
new VFile({path: path.join('path', 'to', 'readme.md')})
new VFile({stem: 'readme', extname: '.md', dirname: path.join('path', 'to')})
new VFile({other: 'properties', are: 'copied', ov: {e: 'r'}})
file.cwdBase of path (string, default: process.cwd() or '/' in browsers).
file.dataPlace to store custom info (Record<string, unknown>, default: {}).
It’s OK to store custom data directly on the file but moving it to data is
recommended.
file.historyList of file paths the file moved between (Array<string>).
The first is the original path and the last is the current path.
file.messagesList of messages associated with the file
(Array<VFileMessage>).
file.valueRaw value (Uint8Array, string, undefined).
file.basenameGet or set the basename (including extname) (string?, example: 'index.min.js').
Cannot contain path separators ('/' on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\' on
windows).
Cannot be nullified (use file.path = file.dirname instead).
file.dirnameGet or set the parent path (string?, example: '~').
Cannot be set if there’s no path yet.
file.extnameGet or set the extname (including dot) (string?, example: '.js').
Cannot contain path separators ('/' on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\' on
windows).
Cannot be set if there’s no path yet.
file.pathGet or set the full path (string?, example: '~/index.min.js').
Cannot be nullified.
You can set a file URL (a URL object with a file: protocol) which will be
turned into a path with url.fileURLToPath.
file.stemGet or set the stem (basename w/o extname) (string?, example: 'index.min').
Cannot contain path separators ('/' on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\' on
windows).
Cannot be nullified.
VFile#fail(reason[, options])Create a fatal message for reason associated with the file.
The fatal field of the message is set to true (error; file not usable) and
the file field is set to the current file path.
The message is added to the messages field on file.
🪦 Note: also has obsolete signatures.
reason (string)
— reason for message, should use markdownoptions (MessageOptions, optional)
— configurationNothing (never).
Message (VFileMessage).
VFile#info(reason[, options])Create an info message for reason associated with the file.
The fatal field of the message is set to undefined (info; change likely not
needed) and the file field is set to the current file path.
The message is added to the messages field on file.
🪦 Note: also has obsolete signatures.
reason (string)
— reason for message, should use markdownoptions (MessageOptions, optional)
— configurationMessage (VFileMessage).
VFile#message(reason[, options])Create a message for reason associated with the file.
The fatal field of the message is set to false (warning; change may be
needed) and the file field is set to the current file path.
The message is added to the messages field on file.
🪦 Note: also has obsolete signatures.
reason (string)
— reason for message, should use markdownoptions (MessageOptions, optional)
— configurationMessage (VFileMessage).
VFile#toString(encoding?)Serialize the file.
Note: which encodings are supported depends on the engine. For info on Node.js, see: https://nodejs.org/api/util.html#whatwg-supported-encodings.
encoding (string, default: 'utf8')
— character encoding to understand value as when it’s a
Uint8ArraySerialized file (string).
CompatibleThings that can be passed to the constructor (TypeScript type).
type Compatible = Options | URL | VFile | Value
DataCustom info (TypeScript type).
Known attributes can be added to DataMap.
type Data = Record<string, unknown> & Partial<DataMap>
DataMapThis map registers the type of the data key of a VFile (TypeScript type).
This type can be augmented to register custom data types.
interface DataMap {}
declare module 'vfile' {
interface DataMap {
// `file.data.name` is typed as `string`
name: string
}
}
MapRaw source map (TypeScript type).
See source-map.
version (number)
— which version of the source map spec this map is followingsources (Array<string>)
— an array of URLs to the original source filesnames (Array<string>)
— an array of identifiers which can be referenced by individual mappingssourceRoot (string, optional)
— the URL root from which all sources are relativesourcesContent (Array<string>, optional)
— an array of contents of the original source filesmappings (string)
— a string of base64 VLQs which contain the actual mappingsfile (string)
— the generated file this source map is associated withMessageOptionsOptions to create messages (TypeScript type).
OptionsAn object with arbitrary fields and the following known fields (TypeScript type).
basename (string, optional)
— set basename (name)cwd (string, optional)
— set cwd (working directory)data (Data, optional)
— set data (associated info)dirname (string, optional)
— set dirname (path w/o basename)extname (string, optional)
— set extname (extension with dot)history (Array<string>, optional)
— set history (paths the file moved between)path (URL | string, optional)
— set path (current path)stem (string, optional)
— set stem (name without extension)value (Value, optional)
— set value (the contents of the file)ReporterType for a reporter (TypeScript type).
type Reporter<Settings = ReporterSettings> = (
files: Array<VFile>,
options: Settings
) => string
ReporterSettingsConfiguration for reporters (TypeScript type).
type ReporterSettings = Record<string, unknown>
ValueContents of the file (TypeScript type).
Can either be text or a Uint8Array structure.
type Value = Uint8Array | string
The following fields are considered “non-standard”, but they are allowed, and some utilities use them:
map (Map)
— source map; this type is equivalent to the RawSourceMap type from the
source-map moduleresult (unknown)
— custom, non-string, compiled, representation; this is used by unified to
store non-string results; one example is when turning markdown into React
nodesstored (boolean)
— whether a file was saved to disk; this is used by vfile reportersThere are also well-known fields on messages, see
them in a similar section of
vfile-message.
convert-vinyl-to-vfile
— transform from Vinylto-vfile
— create a file from a file path and read and write to the file systemvfile-find-down
— find files by searching the file system downwardsvfile-find-up
— find files by searching the file system upwardsvfile-glob
— find files by glob patternsvfile-is
— check if a file passes a testvfile-location
— convert between positional and offset locationsvfile-matter
— parse the YAML front mattervfile-message
— create a file messagevfile-messages-to-vscode-diagnostics
— transform file messages to VS Code diagnosticsvfile-mkdirp
— make sure the directory of a file exists on the file systemvfile-rename
— rename the path parts of a filevfile-sort
— sort messages by line/columnvfile-statistics
— count messages per category: failures, warnings, etcvfile-to-eslint
— convert to ESLint formatter compatible output👉 Note: see unist for projects that work with nodes.
vfile-reporter
— create a reportvfile-reporter-json
— create a JSON reportvfile-reporter-folder-json
— create a JSON representation of vfilesvfile-reporter-pretty
— create a pretty reportvfile-reporter-junit
— create a jUnit reportvfile-reporter-position
— create a report with content excerpts👉 Note: want to make your own reporter? Reporters must accept
Array<VFile>as their first argument, and returnstring. Reporters may accept other values too, in which case it’s suggested to stick tovfile-reporters interface.
This package is fully typed with TypeScript.
It exports the additional types
Compatible,
Data,
DataMap,
Map,
MessageOptions,
Options,
Reporter,
ReporterSettings, and
Value.
Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with maintained versions of Node.js.
When we cut a new major release, we drop support for unmaintained versions of
Node.
This means we try to keep the current release line, vfile@^6,
compatible with Node.js 16.
See contributing.md in vfile/.github for ways to
get started.
See support.md for ways to get help.
This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.
Support this effort and give back by sponsoring on OpenCollective!
Vercel
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Boost Note
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Markdown Space
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You? |
The initial release of this project was authored by @wooorm.
Thanks to @contra, @phated, and others for their work on Vinyl, which was a huge inspiration.
Thanks to @brendo, @shinnn, @KyleAMathews, @sindresorhus, and @denysdovhan for contributing commits since!
FAQs
Virtual file format for text processing
The npm package vfile receives a total of 9,812,995 weekly downloads. As such, vfile popularity was classified as popular.
We found that vfile demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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