— Node.js, JavaScript, intermediate, tutorial, intro-to-node-js — 5 min read
Welcome to the second part of the six-part Introduction to Node.js tutorial series. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to use:
fs module to access and interact with the file systemprocess module to interact with the current Node.js processfs Module Overviewfs Modulefs.statfs.readFilefs.appendFileprocess Module Overviewprocess.argvprocess.envLet's get started with Node.js by exploring its module system!
The module system allows you to load built-in Node.js modules as well as third-party libraries into your application to perform various tasks, including, but not limited to:
In this section, you will explore two popular, widely-used built-in Node.js modules, namely process and fs.
In a future tutorial, you will also apply the http and https modules to create web servers, make HTTP requests, and perform other networking tasks!
Inside intro-to-nodejs-course, create a subfolder called nodejs-api and change into it:
1$ mkdir nodejs-api2$ cd nodejs-apiInside nodejs-api, create these files: file-system.js, process.js, and test.txt.
1$ touch file-system.js process.js test.txtCopy and paste some dummy text into test.txt, which is the file we will interact with for this lesson.
1Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque ac sodales turpis, dignissim consequat massa. Aliquam vitae fermentum nisl. Etiam sit amet velit ullamcorper, aliquet leo non, varius nisi. Fusce vulputate venenatis magna sit amet tempor. Aliquam vestibulum faucibus sapien et cursus. Quisque venenatis vulputate viverra. Donec velit felis, fermentum nec fringilla ac, sagittis ac neque. Aenean in nisi ac nibh luctus blandit a et dolor. Praesent at lacinia ex. Morbi eros diam, rutrum vitae pellentesque id, cursus non eros. Integer consequat augue eu viverra dapibus. Cras gravida, tortor a eleifend egestas, tellus dui viverra mi, pharetra pretium velit erat malesuada erat. Praesent vitae eros feugiat, imperdiet ex eu, vulputate libero. Ut tempus sagittis dolor, ut consectetur erat convallis eget.2
3Duis tempor ornare neque id tincidunt. Quisque vehicula lacinia elit, ut suscipit magna ullamcorper dapibus. Phasellus feugiat et nisl non malesuada. Suspendisse imperdiet ultrices elit, et euismod lectus scelerisque non. Suspendisse eu dui turpis. Morbi sed tortor porttitor, lacinia purus vitae, gravida erat. Nunc id massa fringilla, tristique lectus et, consectetur tortor. Phasellus blandit bibendum erat, quis cursus enim iaculis quis. Quisque porta vel sem sit amet pharetra. Maecenas vel risus nec nisi imperdiet pharetra et accumsan diam. Nam id vulputate nunc.4
5Curabitur tincidunt lectus vitae turpis sollicitudin euismod. Nulla quis diam vulputate, interdum orci eu, faucibus ante. Donec mi purus, tincidunt nec pellentesque ac, ornare at neque. Donec vitae tortor dolor. Mauris vel tempus augue, in pulvinar metus. Proin tincidunt lacus at hendrerit hendrerit. Donec nec ante nec dui semper lacinia quis id lectus. Pellentesque malesuada vulputate ante, sed sollicitudin sapien aliquet quis. Nam maximus, elit ullamcorper blandit dapibus, justo velit posuere velit, vel pharetra velit justo non lacus. Suspendisse vitae vestibulum enim, sit amet sagittis metus. Ut vitae sagittis sem. Suspendisse dictum feugiat risus.6
7Nam consequat urna nulla, vitae volutpat nunc tempor et. Quisque sit amet interdum nunc, sit amet elementum eros. Sed id velit quis ipsum luctus pulvinar nec vel turpis. Nunc convallis tempor nunc, sit amet posuere mi tincidunt a. Aliquam vel neque finibus, feugiat nunc non, pharetra lectus. Ut in imperdiet quam. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Aenean bibendum, purus sed viverra vehicula, ligula leo eleifend tellus, a consequat ligula elit eget ante. In vehicula orci pulvinar, porttitor elit quis, viverra libero. Phasellus quis tortor ultrices, volutpat elit a, finibus neque. Donec scelerisque ut diam a placerat.8
9Vestibulum pellentesque interdum lorem at aliquam. Praesent blandit ex ac venenatis sodales. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Duis sed est nec ex gravida tempus. Sed ac ante sit amet sapien maximus elementum. Vestibulum vel leo erat. Vestibulum eget sapien in nunc tincidunt dictum eu quis velit. Integer commodo, felis eu commodo tincidunt, leo dolor pulvinar neque, in faucibus arcu magna ac eros. In ipsum sem, ullamcorper in pretium id, luctus at dolor. Proin vitae lorem felis. Nullam facilisis, lectus id pharetra sollicitudin, lorem velit hendrerit mauris, commodo dapibus tortor arcu a sem. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Nulla id turpis vel ante faucibus tristique nec eu turpis. Sed tempor, nibh ac egestas sollicitudin, dui risus sagittis neque, quis dapibus risus ipsum quis risus.You're all set!
fs Module OverviewThe fs module is a built-in global Node.js module that exposes an API for accessing, manipulating, and interacting with the file system.
You will use a few methods from the fs module to read and write information to test.txt.
All fs operations are available either in the synchronous or asynchronous forms.
In this tutorial series, you'll be using a newer feature of fs, the fs Promises API, which returns Promise objects so that you can use the async/await keywords instead of callbacks to handle asynchronicity.
You can access the API by importing it at the top of the file via require('fs').promises.
fs ModuleThe module system uses the require function to load in a module and get access to its contents.
To load in the fs module and get access to its properties and methods, require the module at the top of the file:
1const fs = require("fs").promises;fs.stat()Every file comes with a set of information (e.g., size, creation time, etc.) we can inspect with fs.stat. You can use the output of fs.stat() to perform common programming tasks, such as checking whether or not the path resolves to a file or a directory.
Add the following code right below the fs module require() function:
1const getStats = async (path) => {2 try {3 // Pass in the file path4 const stats = await fs.stat(path);5 console.log(stats);6 } catch (error) {7 console.error(error);8 }9};10
11getStats("./test.txt");getStats() accepts a file path as an argument and calls the fs.stat() method using the async/await pattern. If the fs.state() call is successful, then the file stats are logged to the console. Otherwise, an error is logged.
In the nodejs-api directory, run the script using the command: $ node script.js
What do you see?
You can call special methods on the stats object to obtain further information about the object. For example, .isFile() and .isDirectory() check whether a given file path led to a file or a directory, respectively. To better understand how they work, modify getStats(), like this:
1const getStats = async path => {2 try {3 const stats = await fs.stat(path);4 console.log(stats);5+ console.log(`isFile: ${stats.isFile()}`);6+ console.log(`isDirectory: ${stats.isDirectory()}`);78 } catch (error) {9 console.error(error);10 }11};12
13getStats('./test.txt');You will see the isFile: true and isDirectory: false being logged to the console since ./test.txt leads to a file.
When you're done, don't forget to comment out getStats('./test.txt') so that you can keep the console clear when testing out the remaining fs methods.
fs.readFile()You can read a file with fs.readFile(). This method accepts two arguments: a file path and a character encoding type (i.e., utf8).
Add the following code:
1const readFile = async (path) => {2 try {3 const contents = await fs.readFile(path, "utf8");4 console.log(contents);5 } catch (error) {6 console.error(error);7 }8};9
10readFile("./test.txt");In the nodejs-api directory, run the script using the command: $ node script.js
What do you see?
Implement a writeFile() function that asynchronously writes data to test.txt, replacing all existing data with new data passed to writeFile().
Use the documentation to find the appropriate fs method for this operation.
After writing to test.txt with your function, check the contents of test.txt from your code editor. What do you see?
https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_filehandle_writefile_data_options
1const writeFile = async (path, data) => {2 try {3 await fs.writeFile(path, data);4 } catch (error) {5 console.error(error);6 }7};8writeFile("./test.txt", "hello world");fs.appendFile()Implement a appendFile() function that asynchronously appends data to the end of the test.txt file.
Use the documentation to find the appropriate fs method for this operation.
After appending to test.txt with your function, check the contents of test.txt from your code editor. What do you see?
1const appendFile = async (path, data) => {2 try {3 await fs.appendFile(path, data);4 } catch (error) {5 console.error(error);6 }7};8appendFile("./test.txt", "appending another hello world");The fs methods above load the full content of test.txt in memory before manipulating the content. As a result, huge files will have an adverse impact on your program's memory efficiency and speed of execution.
In this case, a better option is to access the file content using streams. Streams are a way to handle and process data in smaller chunks, without loading all the data in memory.
You won't be using streams extensively for this tutorial, but you can read and learn about the Node.js Stream Module here.
The tutorial won't go into detail on folder manipulation, but take a look at this guide if you're interested.
process Module OverviewThe process object provides information about and allows the program to interact with the current Node.js process.
process is a global object, so it can be accessed from anywhere inside your Node.js applications without using require().
Now you will take a look at a few common process properties, such as .argv and .env.
process.argv.process.argv allows you to access the values passed into the application from the command-line. It stores the values in an array.
Add the following code:
1const name = process.argv[2];2console.log(process.argv);3console.log(`Hi, I'm ${name}!`);In the nodejs-api folder, run process.js, passing in your name as an argument:
1$ node process.js HouWhat do you see?
The argv property consists of an array of all the command line invocation arguments.
The first element (i.e., process.argv[0]) is the full path of the node command.
The second element (i.e., process.argv[1]) is the full path of the file being executed.
The third elements and beyond consist of the additional arguments passed from the command line. Node.js accepts any number of arguments from the command line.
Try passing in a location argument.
1const name = process.argv[2];2console.log(process.argv);3+ const location = process.argv[3];4- console.log(`Hi, I'm ${name}!`);5+ console.log(`Hi, I'm ${name}! I live in ${location}`);You can use libraries like yargs or minimist to parse more complex arguments (e.g., $ node process.js name=Hou location=Brooklyn)
process.env.Environment variables allow you to configure your applications in different environments. For example, you could set an environment variable to connect your test server to the test database. In Node.js, these variables can be accessed via process.env.
Log the process.env property to the console, like this:
1console.log("process.env:", process.env);What do you see? It logs an object containing all the environment variables for the Node.js process.
Log process.env.NODE_ENV to the console:
1console.log("process.env.NODE_ENV: ", process.env.NODE_ENV);You should get process.env.NODE_ENV: undefined.
Let's set a custom environment variable from the command-line:
1$ NODE_ENV=development node process.js Hou BrooklynWhat gets logged to the console now?
Take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned in this tutorial and answer the following questions:
What would you use the fs or process module for?
How would you access environment variables attached to a Node.js process?
How would you access arguments passed to a Node.js application from the command line?
You can use the fs module for accessing, manipulating, and interacting with the file system. You can use the process object to access information about and interact with the current Node.js process. Both of these are built-in global Node.js modules.
You can use process.env to access the environment variables attached to a Node.js process.
process.argv allows you to access the values passed into the application from the command-line.
Now you know how the Node.js API works and how to access and interact with the file system and Node.js processes using special Node.js libraries. In Part 3, you’ll review several essential JavaScript concepts (e.g., arrow function syntax,let/const, object destructuring, spread and rest operator syntax, etc.) that are needed to succeed in the Introduction to Node.js tutorial series.
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