VFile is a virtual file format used by unified,
a text processing umbrella (it powers retext for
natural language, remark for markdown, and
rehype for HTML). Each processors that parse, transform,
and compile text, and need a virtual representation of files and a
place to store messages about them. Plus, they work in the browser.
VFile provides these requirements at a small size, in IE 9 and up.
VFile is different from the excellent vinyl
in that it has a smaller API, a smaller size, and focuses on
messages.
VFile can be used anywhere where files need a lightweight representation.
For example, it’s used in:
documentation
— The documentation system for modern JavaScriptawoo
— Declarative small site generatorgeojsonhint
— Complete, fast, standards-based validation for geojson
Installation
npm:
npm install vfile
Table of Contents
Usage
var vfile = require('vfile')
var file = vfile({path: '~/example.txt', contents: 'Alpha *braavo* charlie.'})
file.path
file.dirname
file.extname = '.md'
file.basename
file.basename = 'index.text'
file.history
file.message('`braavo` is misspelt; did you mean `bravo`?', {
line: 1,
column: 8
})
console.log(file.messages)
Yields:
[ { [~/index.text:1:8: `braavo` is misspelt; did you mean `bravo`?]
message: '`braavo` is misspelt; did you mean `bravo`?',
name: '~/index.text:1:8',
file: '~/index.text',
reason: '`braavo` is misspelt; did you mean `bravo`?',
line: 1,
column: 8,
location: { start: [Object], end: [Object] },
ruleId: null,
source: null,
fatal: false } ]
Utilities
The following list of projects includes tools for working with virtual
files. See Unist for projects working with nodes.
Reporters
The following list of projects show linting results for given virtual files.
Reporters must accept Array.<VFile>
as their first argument, and return
string
. Reporters may accept other values too, in which case it’s suggested
to stick to vfile-reporter
s interface.
API
VFile([options])
Create a new virtual file. If options
is string
or Buffer
, treats
it as {contents: options}
. If options
is a VFile
, returns it.
All other options are set on the newly created vfile
.
Path related properties are set in the following order (least specific
to most specific): history
, path
, basename
, stem
, extname
,
dirname
.
It’s not possible to set either dirname
or extname
without setting
either history
, path
, basename
, or stem
as well.
Example
vfile()
vfile('console.log("alpha");')
vfile(Buffer.from('exit 1'))
vfile({path: path.join(__dirname, 'readme.md')})
vfile({stem: 'readme', extname: '.md', dirname: __dirname})
vfile({other: 'properties', are: 'copied', ov: {e: 'r'}})
vfile.contents
Buffer
, string
, null
— Raw value.
vfile.cwd
string
— Base of path
. Defaults to process.cwd()
.
vfile.path
string?
— Path of vfile
. Cannot be nullified.
vfile.basename
string?
— Current name (including extension) of vfile
. Cannot
contain path separators. Cannot be nullified either (use
file.path = file.dirname
instead).
vfile.stem
string?
— Name (without extension) of vfile
. Cannot be nullified,
and cannot contain path separators.
vfile.extname
string?
— Extension (with dot) of vfile
. Cannot be set if
there’s no path
yet and cannot contain path separators.
vfile.dirname
string?
— Path to parent directory of vfile
. Cannot be set if
there’s no path
yet.
vfile.history
Array.<string>
— List of file-paths the file moved between.
vfile.messages
Array.<VMessage>
— List of messages associated with the file.
vfile.data
Object
— Place to store custom information. It’s OK to store custom
data directly on the vfile
, moving it to data
gives a little more
privacy.
VFile#toString([encoding])
Convert contents of vfile
to string. If contents
is a buffer,
encoding
is used to stringify buffers (default: 'utf8'
).
VFile#message(reason[, position][, origin])
Associates a message with the file, where fatal
is set to false
.
Constructs a new VMessage
and adds it to
vfile.messages
.
Returns
VMessage
.
VFile#info(reason[, position][, origin])
Associates an informational message with the file, where fatal
is set to
null
. Calls #message()
internally.
Returns
VMessage
.
VFile#fail(reason[, position][, origin])
Associates a fatal message with the file, then immediately throws it.
Note: fatal errors mean a file is no longer processable.
Calls #message()
internally.
Throws
VMessage
.
Contribute
VFile is built by people just like you! Check out
contributing.md
for ways to get started.
This project has a Code of Conduct. By interacting with this repository,
organisation, or community you agree to abide by its terms.
Want to chat with the community and contributors? Join us in Gitter!
Have an idea for a cool new utility or tool? That’s great! If you want
feedback, help, or just to share it with the world you can do so by creating
an issue in the vfile/ideas
repository!
Acknowledgments
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!
License
MIT © Titus Wormer