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vfile

Virtual file format for text processing

5.3.7
Source
npm

Version published: 2 years ago

Weekly downloads: 13M; increased by1.59%

Maintainers: 1

Weekly downloads

Created: 10 years ago

What is vfile?

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.

What are vfile's main functionalities?

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);

Other packages similar to vfile

vfile is a small and browser friendly virtual file format that tracks metadata about files (such as its path and value) and lint messages.

unified

vfile is part of the unified collective.

for more about us, see unifiedjs.com
for how the collective is governed, see unifiedjs/collective
for updates, see @unifiedjs on Twitter

What is this?

This 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.

When should I use this?

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.

Install

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 14.14 and 16.0+), install with npm:

npm install vfile

In Deno with esm.sh:

import {VFile} from 'https://esm.sh/vfile@5'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import {VFile} from 'https://esm.sh/vfile@5?bundle'
</script>

Use

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`?', {
  line: 1,
  column: 8
})

console.log(file.messages)

Yields:

[
  [~/index.text:1:8: Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?] {
    reason: 'Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?',
    line: 1,
    column: 8,
    source: null,
    ruleId: null,
    position: {start: [Object], end: [Object]},
    file: '~/index.text',
    fatal: false
  }
]

API

This package exports the identifier VFile. There is no default export.

`VFile(options?)`

Create a new virtual file.

options is treated as:

string or Buffer — {value: options}
URL — {path: options}
VFile — shallow copies its data over to the new file
object — all fields are shallow copied over to the new file

Path 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.

Parameters

options (Compatible, optional) — file value

Returns

New instance (VFile).

Example

new VFile()
new VFile('console.log("alpha");')
new VFile(Buffer.from('exit 1'))
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.value`

Raw value (Buffer, string, null).

`file.cwd`

Base of path (string, default: process.cwd() or '/' in browsers).

`file.path`

Get 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.dirname`

Get or set the parent path (string?, example: '~').

Cannot be set if there’s no path yet.

`file.basename`

Get 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.extname`

Get 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.stem`

Get 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.

`file.history`

List of filepaths the file moved between (Array<string>).

The first is the original path and the last is the current path.

`file.messages`

List of messages associated with the file (Array<VFileMessage>).

`file.data`

Place to store custom information (Record<string, unknown>, default: {}).

It’s OK to store custom data directly on the file but moving it to data is recommended.

`VFile#toString(encoding?)`

Serialize the file.

Parameters

encoding (BufferEncoding, default: 'utf8') — character encoding to understand value as when it’s a Buffer

Returns

Serialized file (string).

`VFile#message(reason[, position][, origin])`

Create a warning message associated with the file.

Its fatal is set to false and file is set to the current file path. Its added to file.messages.

Parameters

reason (string or Error) — reason for message, uses the stack and message of the error if given
place (Node, Position, or Point, optional) — place in file where the message occurred
origin (string?, optional, example: 'my-package:my-rule' or 'my-rule') — place in code where the message originates

Returns

Message (VFileMessage).

`VFile#info(reason[, position][, origin])`

Create an info message associated with the file.

Its fatal is set to null and file is set to the current file path. Its added to file.messages.

Parameters

reason (string or Error) — reason for message, uses the stack and message of the error if given
place (Node, Position, or Point, optional) — place in file where the message occurred
origin (string?, optional, example: 'my-package:my-rule' or 'my-rule') — place in code where the message originates

Returns

Message (VFileMessage).

`VFile#fail(reason[, position][, origin])`

Create a fatal error associated with the file.

Its fatal is set to true and file is set to the current file path. Its added to file.messages.

👉 Note: a fatal error means that a file is no longer processable.

Parameters

reason (string or Error) — reason for message, uses the stack and message of the error if given
place (Node, Position, or Point, optional) — place in file where the message occurred
origin (string?, optional, example: 'my-package:my-rule' or 'my-rule') — place in code where the message originates

Returns

Nothing (never).

Throws

Message (VFileMessage).

`BufferEncoding`

Encodings supported by the buffer class (TypeScript type).

This is a copy of the types from Node.

Type

type BufferEncoding =
  | 'ascii'
  | 'utf8'
  | 'utf-8'
  | 'utf16le'
  | 'ucs2'
  | 'ucs-2'
  | 'base64'
  | 'base64url'
  | 'latin1'
  | 'binary'
  | 'hex'

`Compatible`

Things that can be passed to the constructor (TypeScript type).

Type

type Compatible = Options | URL | Value | VFile

`Data`

Custom information (TypeScript type).

Known attributes can be added to DataMap.

Type

type Data = Record<string, unknown> & Partial<DataMap>

`DataMap`

This map registers the type of the data key of a VFile (TypeScript type).

This type can be augmented to register custom data types.

Type

interface DataMap {}

Example

declare module 'vfile' {
  interface DataMap {
    // `file.data.name` is typed as `string`
    name: string
  }
}

`Map`

Raw source map (TypeScript type).

See source-map.

Fields

version (number) — which version of the source map spec this map is following
sources (Array<string>) — an array of URLs to the original source files
names (Array<string>) — an array of identifiers which can be referenced by individual mappings
sourceRoot (string, optional) — the URL root from which all sources are relative
sourcesContent (Array<string>, optional) — an array of contents of the original source files
mappings (string) — a string of base64 VLQs which contain the actual mappings
file (string) — the generated file this source map is associated with

`Options`

An object with arbitrary fields and the following known fields (TypeScript type).

Fields

value (Value, optional) — set value
cwd (string, optional) — set cwd
history (Array<string>, optional) — set history
path (URL | string, optional) — set path
basename (string, optional) — set basename
stem (string, optional) — set stem
extname (string, optional) — set extname
dirname (string, optional) — set dirname
data (Data, optional) — set data

`Reporter`

Type for a reporter (TypeScript type).

Type

type Reporter<Settings extends ReporterSettings> = (
  files: Array<VFile>,
  options: Settings
) => string

`ReporterSettings`

Configuration for reporters (TypeScript type).

Type

type ReporterSettings = Record<string, unknown>

`Value`

Contents of the file (TypeScript type).

Can either be text or a Buffer structure.

Type

type Value = string | Buffer

Well-known

The following fields are considered “non-standard”, but they are allowed, and some utilities use them:

stored (boolean) — whether a file was saved to disk; this is used by vfile reporters
result (unknown) — custom, non-string, compiled, representation; this is used by unified to store non-string results; one example is when turning markdown into React nodes
map (Map) — source map; this type is equivalent to the RawSourceMap type from the source-map module

There are also well-known fields on messages, see them in a similar section of vfile-message.

List of utilities

convert-vinyl-to-vfile — transform from Vinyl
to-vfile — create a file from a filepath and read and write to the file system
vfile-find-down — find files by searching the file system downwards
vfile-find-up — find files by searching the file system upwards
vfile-glob — find files by glob patterns
vfile-is — check if a file passes a test
vfile-location — convert between positional and offset locations
vfile-matter — parse the YAML front matter
vfile-message — create a file message
vfile-messages-to-vscode-diagnostics — transform file messages to VS Code diagnostics
vfile-mkdirp — make sure the directory of a file exists on the file system
vfile-rename — rename the path parts of a file
vfile-sort — sort messages by line/column
vfile-statistics — count messages per category: failures, warnings, etc
vfile-to-eslint — convert to ESLint formatter compatible output

👉 Note: see unist for projects that work with nodes.

Reporters

vfile-reporter — create a report
vfile-reporter-json — create a JSON report
vfile-reporter-folder-json — create a JSON representation of vfiles
vfile-reporter-pretty — create a pretty report
vfile-reporter-junit — create a jUnit report
vfile-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 return string. Reporters may accept other values too, in which case it’s suggested to stick to vfile-reporters interface.

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports the additional types BufferEncoding, Compatible, Data, DataMap, Map, Options, Reporter, ReporterSettings, and Value.

Compatibility

Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with all maintained versions of Node.js. As of now, that is Node.js 14.14+ and 16.0+. Our projects sometimes work with older versions, but this is not guaranteed.

Contribute

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	Motif	HashiCorp	GitBook	Gatsby
Netlify	Coinbase	ThemeIsle	Expo	Boost Note	Holloway
You?

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

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Package last updated on 08 Feb 2023

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Install

vfile

What is vfile?

What are vfile's main functionalities?

Other packages similar to vfile

vinyl

mem-fs

.css-6n7j50{display:inline;}

Contents

unified

What is this?

When should I use this?

Install

Use

API

VFile(options?)

Parameters

Returns

Example

file.value

file.cwd

file.path

file.dirname

file.basename

file.extname

file.stem

file.history

file.messages

file.data

VFile#toString(encoding?)

Parameters

Returns

VFile#message(reason[, position][, origin])

Parameters

Returns

VFile#info(reason[, position][, origin])

Parameters

Returns

VFile#fail(reason[, position][, origin])

Parameters

Returns

Throws

BufferEncoding

Type

Compatible

Type

Data

Type

DataMap

Type

Example

Map

Fields

Options

Fields

Reporter

Type

ReporterSettings

Type

Value

Type

Well-known

List of utilities

Reporters

Types

Compatibility

Contribute

Sponsor

Acknowledgments

License

Keywords

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`VFile(options?)`

`file.value`

`file.cwd`

`file.path`

`file.dirname`

`file.basename`

`file.extname`

`file.stem`

`file.history`

`file.messages`

`file.data`

`VFile#toString(encoding?)`

`VFile#message(reason[, position][, origin])`

`VFile#info(reason[, position][, origin])`

`VFile#fail(reason[, position][, origin])`

`BufferEncoding`

`Compatible`

`Data`

`DataMap`

`Map`

`Options`

`Reporter`

`ReporterSettings`

`Value`