Callback API

The callback APIs perform all operations asynchronously, without blocking the event loop, then invoke a callback function upon completion or error.

The callback APIs use the underlying Node.js threadpool to perform file system operations off the event loop thread. These operations are not synchronized or threadsafe. Care must be taken when performing multiple concurrent modifications on the same file or data corruption may occur.

fs.access(path, mode?, callback): void

Tests a user's permissions for the file or directory specified by path. The mode argument is an optional integer that specifies the accessibility checks to be performed. mode should be either the value fs.constants.F_OK or a mask consisting of the bitwise OR of any of fs.constants.R_OK, fs.constants.W_OK, and fs.constants.X_OK (e.g. fs.constants.W_OK | fs.constants.R_OK). Check File access constants for possible values of mode.

The final argument, callback, is a callback function that is invoked with a possible error argument. If any of the accessibility checks fail, the error argument will be an Error object. The following examples check if package.json exists, and if it is readable or writable.

import { access, constants } from 'node:fs';

const file = 'package.json';

// Check if the file exists in the current directory.
access(file, constants.F_OK, (err) => {
  console.log(`${file} ${err ? 'does not exist' : 'exists'}`);
});

// Check if the file is readable.
access(file, constants.R_OK, (err) => {
  console.log(`${file} ${err ? 'is not readable' : 'is readable'}`);
});

// Check if the file is writable.
access(file, constants.W_OK, (err) => {
  console.log(`${file} ${err ? 'is not writable' : 'is writable'}`);
});

// Check if the file is readable and writable.
access(file, constants.R_OK | constants.W_OK, (err) => {
  console.log(`${file} ${err ? 'is not' : 'is'} readable and writable`);
});

Do not use fs.access() to check for the accessibility of a file before calling fs.open(), fs.readFile(), or fs.writeFile(). Doing so introduces a race condition, since other processes may change the file's state between the two calls. Instead, user code should open/read/write the file directly and handle the error raised if the file is not accessible.

write (NOT RECOMMENDED)

import { access, open, close } from 'node:fs';

access('myfile', (err) => {
  if (!err) {
    console.error('myfile already exists');
    return;
  }

  open('myfile', 'wx', (err, fd) => {
    if (err) throw err;

    try {
      writeMyData(fd);
    } finally {
      close(fd, (err) => {
        if (err) throw err;
      });
    }
  });
});

write (RECOMMENDED)

import { open, close } from 'node:fs';

open('myfile', 'wx', (err, fd) => {
  if (err) {
    if (err.code === 'EEXIST') {
      console.error('myfile already exists');
      return;
    }

    throw err;
  }

  try {
    writeMyData(fd);
  } finally {
    close(fd, (err) => {
      if (err) throw err;
    });
  }
});

read (NOT RECOMMENDED)

import { access, open, close } from 'node:fs';
access('myfile', (err) => {
  if (err) {
    if (err.code === 'ENOENT') {
      console.error('myfile does not exist');
      return;
    }

    throw err;
  }

  open('myfile', 'r', (err, fd) => {
    if (err) throw err;

    try {
      readMyData(fd);
    } finally {
      close(fd, (err) => {
        if (err) throw err;
      });
    }
  });
});

read (RECOMMENDED)

import { open, close } from 'node:fs';

open('myfile', 'r', (err, fd) => {
  if (err) {
    if (err.code === 'ENOENT') {
      console.error('myfile does not exist');
      return;
    }

    throw err;
  }

  try {
    readMyData(fd);
  } finally {
    close(fd, (err) => {
      if (err) throw err;
    });
  }
});

The "not recommended" examples above check for accessibility and then use the file; the "recommended" examples are better because they use the file directly and handle the error, if any.

In general, check for the accessibility of a file only if the file will not be used directly, for example when its accessibility is a signal from another process.

On Windows, access-control policies (ACLs) on a directory may limit access to a file or directory. The fs.access() function, however, does not check the ACL and therefore may report that a path is accessible even if the ACL restricts the user from reading or writing to it.

fs.appendFile(path, data, options?, callback): void

Asynchronously append data to a file, creating the file if it does not yet exist. data can be a string or a Buffer.

The mode option only affects the newly created file. See fs.open() for more details.

import { appendFile } from 'node:fs';

appendFile('message.txt', 'data to append', (err) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('The "data to append" was appended to file!');
});

If options is a string, then it specifies the encoding:

import { appendFile } from 'node:fs';

appendFile('message.txt', 'data to append', 'utf8', callback);

The path may be specified as a numeric file descriptor that has been opened for appending (using fs.open() or fs.openSync()). The file descriptor will not be closed automatically.

import { open, close, appendFile } from 'node:fs';

function closeFd(fd) {
  close(fd, (err) => {
    if (err) throw err;
  });
}

open('message.txt', 'a', (err, fd) => {
  if (err) throw err;

  try {
    appendFile(fd, 'data to append', 'utf8', (err) => {
      closeFd(fd);
      if (err) throw err;
    });
  } catch (err) {
    closeFd(fd);
    throw err;
  }
});

fs.chmod(path, mode, callback): void

Asynchronously changes the permissions of a file. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

See the POSIX chmod(2) documentation for more detail.

import { chmod } from 'node:fs';

chmod('my_file.txt', 0o775, (err) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('The permissions for file "my_file.txt" have been changed!');
});

The mode argument used in both the fs.chmod() and fs.chmodSync() methods is a numeric bitmask created using a logical OR of the following constants:

An easier method of constructing the mode is to use a sequence of three octal digits (e.g. 765). The left-most digit (7 in the example), specifies the permissions for the file owner. The middle digit (6 in the example), specifies permissions for the group. The right-most digit (5 in the example), specifies the permissions for others.

For example, the octal value 0o765 means:

• The owner may read, write, and execute the file.
• The group may read and write the file.
• Others may read and execute the file.

When using raw numbers where file modes are expected, any value larger than 0o777 may result in platform-specific behaviors that are not supported to work consistently. Therefore constants like S_ISVTX, S_ISGID, or S_ISUID are not exposed in fs.constants.

Caveats: on Windows only the write permission can be changed, and the distinction among the permissions of group, owner, or others is not implemented.

fs.chown(path, uid, gid, callback): void

Asynchronously changes owner and group of a file. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

See the POSIX chown(2) documentation for more detail.

fs.close(fd, callback?): void

Closes the file descriptor. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

Calling fs.close() on any file descriptor (fd) that is currently in use through any other fs operation may lead to undefined behavior.

See the POSIX close(2) documentation for more detail.

fs.copyFile(src, dest, mode?, callback): void

Asynchronously copies src to dest. By default, dest is overwritten if it already exists. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the callback function. Node.js makes no guarantees about the atomicity of the copy operation. If an error occurs after the destination file has been opened for writing, Node.js will attempt to remove the destination.

Symbolic links are followed. If src is a symbolic link, the target file is copied. If dest is a symbolic link, the target file is overwritten unless mode contains fs.constants.COPYFILE_EXCL.

mode is an optional integer that specifies the behavior of the copy operation. It is possible to create a mask consisting of the bitwise OR of two or more values (e.g. fs.constants.COPYFILE_EXCL | fs.constants.COPYFILE_FICLONE).

• fs.constants.COPYFILE_EXCL: The copy operation will fail if dest already exists.
• fs.constants.COPYFILE_FICLONE: The copy operation will attempt to create a copy-on-write reflink. If the platform does not support copy-on-write, then a fallback copy mechanism is used.
• fs.constants.COPYFILE_FICLONE_FORCE: The copy operation will attempt to create a copy-on-write reflink. If the platform does not support copy-on-write, then the operation will fail.

import { copyFile, constants } from 'node:fs';

function callback(err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('source.txt was copied to destination.txt');
}

// destination.txt will be created or overwritten by default.
copyFile('source.txt', 'destination.txt', callback);

// By using COPYFILE_EXCL, the operation will fail if destination.txt exists.
copyFile('source.txt', 'destination.txt', constants.COPYFILE_EXCL, callback);

fs.cp(src, dest, options?, callback): void

Asynchronously copies the entire directory structure from src to dest, including subdirectories and files.

When copying a directory to another directory, globs are not supported and behavior is similar to cp dir1/ dir2/.

fs.createReadStream(path, options?): fs.ReadStream

options can include start and end values to read a range of bytes from the file instead of the entire file. Both start and end are inclusive and start counting at 0, allowed values are in the [0, Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER] range. If fd is specified and start is omitted or undefined, fs.createReadStream() reads sequentially from the current file position. The encoding can be any one of those accepted by Buffer.

If fd is specified, ReadStream will ignore the path argument and will use the specified file descriptor. This means that no 'open' event will be emitted. fd should be blocking; non-blocking fds should be passed to net.Socket.

If fd points to a character device that only supports blocking reads (such as keyboard or sound card), read operations do not finish until data is available. This can prevent the process from exiting and the stream from closing naturally.

On Windows, a value passed in fd is interpreted as a CRT file descriptor. To use a raw Win32 HANDLE instead, such as an inherited anonymous pipe handle obtained from another process, pass it as windowsHandle. The handle is wrapped in a file descriptor that the stream owns and closes. The windowsHandle option throws on non-Windows platforms and cannot be combined with the fs option.

By default, the stream will emit a 'close' event after it has been destroyed. Set the emitClose option to false to change this behavior.

By providing the fs option, it is possible to override the corresponding fs implementations for open, read, and close. When providing the fs option, an override for read is required. If no fd is provided, an override for open is also required. If autoClose is true, an override for close is also required.

import { createReadStream } from 'node:fs';

// Create a stream from some character device.
const stream = createReadStream('/dev/input/event0');
setTimeout(() => {
  stream.close(); // This may not close the stream.
  // Artificially marking end-of-stream, as if the underlying resource had
  // indicated end-of-file by itself, allows the stream to close.
  // This does not cancel pending read operations, and if there is such an
  // operation, the process may still not be able to exit successfully
  // until it finishes.
  stream.push(null);
  stream.read(0);
}, 100);

If autoClose is false, then the file descriptor won't be closed, even if there's an error. It is the application's responsibility to close it and make sure there's no file descriptor leak. If autoClose is set to true (default behavior), on 'error' or 'end' the file descriptor will be closed automatically.

mode sets the file mode (permission and sticky bits), but only if the file was created.

An example to read the last 10 bytes of a file which is 100 bytes long:

import { createReadStream } from 'node:fs';

createReadStream('sample.txt', { start: 90, end: 99 });

If options is a string, then it specifies the encoding.

fs.createWriteStream(path, options?): fs.WriteStream

options may also include a start option to allow writing data at some position past the beginning of the file, allowed values are in the [0, Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER] range. Modifying a file rather than replacing it may require the flags option to be set to r+ rather than the default w. The encoding can be any one of those accepted by Buffer.

If autoClose is set to true (default behavior) on 'error' or 'finish' the file descriptor will be closed automatically. If autoClose is false, then the file descriptor won't be closed, even if there's an error. It is the application's responsibility to close it and make sure there's no file descriptor leak.

On Windows, a value passed in fd is interpreted as a CRT file descriptor. To use a raw Win32 HANDLE instead, such as an inherited anonymous pipe handle obtained from another process, pass it as windowsHandle. The handle is wrapped in a file descriptor that the stream owns and closes. The windowsHandle option throws on non-Windows platforms and cannot be combined with the fs option.

By default, the stream will emit a 'close' event after it has been destroyed. Set the emitClose option to false to change this behavior.

By providing the fs option it is possible to override the corresponding fs implementations for open, write, writev, and close. Overriding write() without writev() can reduce performance as some optimizations (_writev()) will be disabled. When providing the fs option, overrides for at least one of write and writev are required. If no fd option is supplied, an override for open is also required. If autoClose is true, an override for close is also required.

Like fs.ReadStream, if fd is specified, fs.WriteStream will ignore the path argument and will use the specified file descriptor. This means that no 'open' event will be emitted. fd should be blocking; non-blocking fds should be passed to net.Socket.

If options is a string, then it specifies the encoding.

fs.exists(path, callback): void

Test whether or not the element at the given path exists by checking with the file system. Then call the callback argument with either true or false:

import { exists } from 'node:fs';

exists('/etc/passwd', (e) => {
  console.log(e ? 'it exists' : 'no passwd!');
});

The parameters for this callback are not consistent with other Node.js callbacks. Normally, the first parameter to a Node.js callback is an err parameter, optionally followed by other parameters. The fs.exists() callback has only one boolean parameter. This is one reason fs.access() is recommended instead of fs.exists().

If path is a symbolic link, it is followed. Thus, if path exists but points to a non-existent element, the callback will receive the value false.

Using fs.exists() to check for the existence of a file before calling fs.open(), fs.readFile(), or fs.writeFile() is not recommended. Doing so introduces a race condition, since other processes may change the file's state between the two calls. Instead, user code should open/read/write the file directly and handle the error raised if the file does not exist.

write (NOT RECOMMENDED)

import { exists, open, close } from 'node:fs';

exists('myfile', (e) => {
  if (e) {
    console.error('myfile already exists');
  } else {
    open('myfile', 'wx', (err, fd) => {
      if (err) throw err;

      try {
        writeMyData(fd);
      } finally {
        close(fd, (err) => {
          if (err) throw err;
        });
      }
    });
  }
});

write (RECOMMENDED)

import { open, close } from 'node:fs';
open('myfile', 'wx', (err, fd) => {
  if (err) {
    if (err.code === 'EEXIST') {
      console.error('myfile already exists');
      return;
    }

    throw err;
  }

  try {
    writeMyData(fd);
  } finally {
    close(fd, (err) => {
      if (err) throw err;
    });
  }
});

read (NOT RECOMMENDED)

import { open, close, exists } from 'node:fs';

exists('myfile', (e) => {
  if (e) {
    open('myfile', 'r', (err, fd) => {
      if (err) throw err;

      try {
        readMyData(fd);
      } finally {
        close(fd, (err) => {
          if (err) throw err;
        });
      }
    });
  } else {
    console.error('myfile does not exist');
  }
});

read (RECOMMENDED)

import { open, close } from 'node:fs';

open('myfile', 'r', (err, fd) => {
  if (err) {
    if (err.code === 'ENOENT') {
      console.error('myfile does not exist');
      return;
    }

    throw err;
  }

  try {
    readMyData(fd);
  } finally {
    close(fd, (err) => {
      if (err) throw err;
    });
  }
});

The "not recommended" examples above check for existence and then use the file; the "recommended" examples are better because they use the file directly and handle the error, if any.

In general, check for the existence of a file only if the file won't be used directly, for example when its existence is a signal from another process.

fs.fchmod(fd, mode, callback): void

Sets the permissions on the file. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

See the POSIX fchmod(2) documentation for more detail.

fs.fchown(fd, uid, gid, callback): void

Sets the owner of the file. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

See the POSIX fchown(2) documentation for more detail.

fs.fdatasync(fd, callback): void

Forces all currently queued I/O operations associated with the file to the operating system's synchronized I/O completion state. Refer to the POSIX fdatasync(2) documentation for details. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.fstat(fd, options?, callback): void

Invokes the callback with the fs.Stats for the file descriptor.

See the POSIX fstat(2) documentation for more detail.

fs.fsync(fd, callback): void

Request that all data for the open file descriptor is flushed to the storage device. The specific implementation is operating system and device specific. Refer to the POSIX fsync(2) documentation for more detail. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.ftruncate(fd, len?, callback): void

Truncates the file descriptor. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

See the POSIX ftruncate(2) documentation for more detail.

If the file referred to by the file descriptor was larger than len bytes, only the first len bytes will be retained in the file.

For example, the following program retains only the first four bytes of the file:

import { open, close, ftruncate } from 'node:fs';

function closeFd(fd) {
  close(fd, (err) => {
    if (err) throw err;
  });
}

open('temp.txt', 'r+', (err, fd) => {
  if (err) throw err;

  try {
    ftruncate(fd, 4, (err) => {
      closeFd(fd);
      if (err) throw err;
    });
  } catch (err) {
    closeFd(fd);
    if (err) throw err;
  }
});

If the file previously was shorter than len bytes, it is extended, and the extended part is filled with null bytes ('\0'):

If len is negative then 0 will be used.

fs.futimes(fd, atime, mtime, callback): void

Change the file system timestamps of the object referenced by the supplied file descriptor. See fs.utimes().

fs.glob(pattern, options?, callback): void

• Retrieves the files matching the specified pattern.

When followSymlinks is enabled, detected symbolic link cycles are not traversed recursively.

import { glob } from 'node:fs';

glob('**/*.js', (err, matches) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(matches);
});

const { glob } = require('node:fs');

glob('**/*.js', (err, matches) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(matches);
});

fs.lchmod(path, mode, callback): void

Changes the permissions on a symbolic link. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

This method is only implemented on macOS.

See the POSIX lchmod(2) documentation for more detail.

fs.lchown(path, uid, gid, callback): void

Set the owner of the symbolic link. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

See the POSIX lchown(2) documentation for more detail.

fs.lutimes(path, atime, mtime, callback): void

Changes the access and modification times of a file in the same way as fs.utimes(), with the difference that if the path refers to a symbolic link, then the link is not dereferenced: instead, the timestamps of the symbolic link itself are changed.

No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.link(existingPath, newPath, callback): void

Creates a new link from the existingPath to the newPath. See the POSIX link(2) documentation for more detail. No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.lstat(path, options?, callback): void

Retrieves the fs.Stats for the symbolic link referred to by the path. The callback gets two arguments (err, stats) where stats is a fs.Stats object. lstat() is identical to stat(), except that if path is a symbolic link, then the link itself is stat-ed, not the file that it refers to.

See the POSIX lstat(2) documentation for more details.

fs.mkdir(path, options?, callback): void

Asynchronously creates a directory.

The callback is given a possible exception and, if recursive is true, the first directory path created, (err[, path]). path can still be undefined when recursive is true, if no directory was created (for instance, if it was previously created).

The optional options argument can be an integer specifying mode (permission and sticky bits), or an object with a mode property and a recursive property indicating whether parent directories should be created. Calling fs.mkdir() when path is a directory that exists results in an error only when recursive is false. If recursive is false and the directory exists, an EEXIST error occurs.

import { mkdir } from 'node:fs';

// Create ./tmp/a/apple, regardless of whether ./tmp and ./tmp/a exist.
mkdir('./tmp/a/apple', { recursive: true }, (err) => {
  if (err) throw err;
});

On Windows, using fs.mkdir() on the root directory even with recursion will result in an error:

import { mkdir } from 'node:fs';

mkdir('/', { recursive: true }, (err) => {
  // => [Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, mkdir 'C:\']
});

See the POSIX mkdir(2) documentation for more details.

fs.mkdtemp(prefix, options?, callback): void

Creates a unique temporary directory.

Generates six random characters to be appended behind a required prefix to create a unique temporary directory. Due to platform inconsistencies, avoid trailing X characters in prefix. Some platforms, notably the BSDs, can return more than six random characters, and replace trailing X characters in prefix with random characters.

The created directory path is passed as a string to the callback's second parameter.

The optional options argument can be a string specifying an encoding, or an object with an encoding property specifying the character encoding to use.

import { mkdtemp } from 'node:fs';
import { join } from 'node:path';
import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';

mkdtemp(join(tmpdir(), 'foo-'), (err, directory) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(directory);
  // Prints: /tmp/foo-itXde2 or C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Temp\foo-itXde2
});

The fs.mkdtemp() method will append the six randomly selected characters directly to the prefix string. For instance, given a directory /tmp, if the intention is to create a temporary directory within /tmp, the prefix must end with a trailing platform-specific path separator (require('node:path').sep).

import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
import { mkdtemp } from 'node:fs';

// The parent directory for the new temporary directory
const tmpDir = tmpdir();

// This method is *INCORRECT*:
mkdtemp(tmpDir, (err, directory) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(directory);
  // Will print something similar to `/tmpabc123`.
  // A new temporary directory is created at the file system root
  // rather than *within* the /tmp directory.
});

// This method is *CORRECT*:
import { sep } from 'node:path';
mkdtemp(`${tmpDir}${sep}`, (err, directory) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(directory);
  // Will print something similar to `/tmp/abc123`.
  // A new temporary directory is created within
  // the /tmp directory.
});

fs.open(path, flags?, mode?, callback): void

Asynchronous file open. See the POSIX open(2) documentation for more details.

mode sets the file mode (permission and sticky bits), but only if the file was created. On Windows, only the write permission can be manipulated; see fs.chmod().

The callback gets two arguments (err, fd).

Some characters (< > : " / \ | ? *) are reserved under Windows as documented by Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces. Under NTFS, if the filename contains a colon, Node.js will open a file system stream, as described by this MSDN page.

Functions based on fs.open() exhibit this behavior as well: fs.writeFile(), fs.readFile(), etc.

fs.openAsBlob(path, options?): Promise

Returns a Blob whose data is backed by the given file.

The file must not be modified after the Blob is created. Any modifications will cause reading the Blob data to fail with a DOMException error. Synchronous stat operations on the file when the Blob is created, and before each read in order to detect whether the file data has been modified on disk.

import { openAsBlob } from 'node:fs';

const blob = await openAsBlob('the.file.txt');
const ab = await blob.arrayBuffer();
blob.stream();

const { openAsBlob } = require('node:fs');

(async () => {
  const blob = await openAsBlob('the.file.txt');
  const ab = await blob.arrayBuffer();
  blob.stream();
})();

fs.opendir(path, options?, callback): void

Asynchronously open a directory. See the POSIX opendir(3) documentation for more details.

Creates an fs.Dir, which contains all further functions for reading from and cleaning up the directory.

The encoding option sets the encoding for the path while opening the directory and subsequent read operations.

fs.read(fd, buffer, offset, length, position, callback): void

Read data from the file specified by fd.

The callback is given the three arguments, (err, bytesRead, buffer).

If the file is not modified concurrently, the end-of-file is reached when the number of bytes read is zero.

If this method is invoked as its util.promisify()ed version, it returns a promise for an Object with bytesRead and buffer properties.

The fs.read() method reads data from the file specified by the file descriptor (fd). The length argument indicates the maximum number of bytes that Node.js will attempt to read from the kernel. However, the actual number of bytes read (bytesRead) can be lower than the specified length for various reasons.

For example:

• If the file is shorter than the specified length, bytesRead will be set to the actual number of bytes read.
• If the file encounters EOF (End of File) before the buffer could be filled, Node.js will read all available bytes until EOF is encountered, and the bytesRead parameter in the callback will indicate the actual number of bytes read, which may be less than the specified length.
• If the file is on a slow network filesystem or encounters any other issue during reading, bytesRead can be lower than the specified length.

Therefore, when using fs.read(), it's important to check the bytesRead value to determine how many bytes were actually read from the file. Depending on your application logic, you may need to handle cases where bytesRead is lower than the specified length, such as by wrapping the read call in a loop if you require a minimum amount of bytes.

This behavior is similar to the POSIX preadv2 function.

fs.read(fd, options?, callback): void

Similar to the fs.read() function, this version takes an optional options object. If no options object is specified, it will default with the above values.

fs.read(fd, buffer, options?, callback): void

Similar to the fs.read() function, this version takes an optional options object. If no options object is specified, it will default with the above values.

fs.readdir(path, options?, callback): void

Reads the contents of a directory. The callback gets two arguments (err, files) where files is an array of the names of the files in the directory excluding '.' and '..'.

See the POSIX readdir(3) documentation for more details.

The optional options argument can be a string specifying an encoding, or an object with an encoding property specifying the character encoding to use for the filenames passed to the callback. If the encoding is set to 'buffer', the filenames returned will be passed as Buffer objects.

If options.withFileTypes is set to true, the files array will contain fs.Dirent objects.

fs.readFile(path, options?, callback): void