Create Directory When Writing To File In Node.js

Question

I've been tinkering with Node.js and found a little problem. I've got a script which resides in a directory called data. I want the script to write some data to a file in a subdirectory within the data subdirectory. However I am getting the following error:

{ [Error: ENOENT, open 'D:\data\tmp\test.txt'] errno: 34, code: 'ENOENT', path: 'D:\\data\\tmp\\test.txt' }

The code is as follows:

var fs = require('fs');
fs.writeFile("tmp/test.txt", "Hey there!", function(err) {
    if(err) {
        console.log(err);
    } else {
        console.log("The file was saved!");
    }
}); 

Can anybody help me in finding out how to make Node.js create the directory structure if it does not exits for writing to a file?

Answer 1

Node > 10.12.0

fs.mkdir now accepts a { recursive: true } option like so:

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

or with a promise:

fs.promises.mkdir('/tmp/a/apple', { recursive: true }).catch(console.error);

Notes,

1. In many case you would use fs.mkdirSync rather than fs.mkdir

2. It is harmless / has no effect to include a trailing slash.

3. mkdirSync/mkdir no nothing harmlessly if the directory already exists, there's no need to check for existence.

Node <= 10.11.0

You can solve this with a package like mkdirp or fs-extra. If you don't want to install a package, please see Tiago Peres França's answer below.

Answer 2

If you don't want to use any additional package, you can call the following function before creating your file:

var path = require('path'),
    fs = require('fs');

function ensureDirectoryExistence(filePath) {
  var dirname = path.dirname(filePath);
  if (fs.existsSync(dirname)) {
    return true;
  }
  ensureDirectoryExistence(dirname);
  fs.mkdirSync(dirname);
}

Answer 3

With node-fs-extra you can do it easily.

Install it

npm install --save fs-extra

Then use the outputFile method. Its documentation says:

Almost the same as writeFile (i.e. it overwrites), except that if the parent directory does not exist, it's created.

You can use it in four ways.

Async/await

const fse = require('fs-extra');

await fse.outputFile('tmp/test.txt', 'Hey there!');

Using Promises

If you use promises, this is the code:

const fse = require('fs-extra');

fse.outputFile('tmp/test.txt', 'Hey there!')
   .then(() => {
       console.log('The file has been saved!');
   })
   .catch(err => {
       console.error(err)
   });

Callback style

const fse = require('fs-extra');

fse.outputFile('tmp/test.txt', 'Hey there!', err => {
  if(err) {
    console.log(err);
  } else {
    console.log('The file has been saved!');
  }
})

Sync version

If you want a sync version, just use this code:

const fse = require('fs-extra')

fse.outputFileSync('tmp/test.txt', 'Hey there!')

For a complete reference, check the outputFile documentation and all node-fs-extra supported methods.

Answer 4

Shameless plug alert!

You will have to check for each directory in the path structure you want and create it manually if it doesn't exist. All the tools to do so are already there in Node's fs module, but you can do all of that simply with my mkpath module: https://github.com/jrajav/mkpath

Answer 5

Same answer as above, but with async await and ready to use!

const fs = require('fs/promises');
const path = require('path');

async function isExists(path) {
  try {
    await fs.access(path);
    return true;
  } catch {
    return false;
  }
};

async function writeFile(filePath, data) {
  try {
    const dirname = path.dirname(filePath);
    const exist = await isExists(dirname);
    if (!exist) {
      await fs.mkdir(dirname, {recursive: true});
    }
    
    await fs.writeFile(filePath, data, 'utf8');
  } catch (err) {
    throw new Error(err);
  }
}

Example:

(async () {
  const data = 'Hello, World!';
  await writeFile('dist/posts/hello-world.html', data);
})();

Answer 6

Since I cannot comment yet, I'm posting an enhanced answer based on @tiago-peres-frança fantastic solution (thanks!). His code does not make directory in a case where only the last directory is missing in the path, e.g. the input is "C:/test/abc" and "C:/test" already exists. Here is a snippet that works:

function mkdirp(filepath) {
    var dirname = path.dirname(filepath);

    if (!fs.existsSync(dirname)) {
        mkdirp(dirname);
    }

    fs.mkdirSync(filepath);
}

Answer 7

My advise is: try not to rely on dependencies when you can easily do it with few lines of codes

Here's what you're trying to achieve in 14 lines of code:

fs.isDir = function(dpath) {
    try {
        return fs.lstatSync(dpath).isDirectory();
    } catch(e) {
        return false;
    }
};
fs.mkdirp = function(dirname) {
    dirname = path.normalize(dirname).split(path.sep);
    dirname.forEach((sdir,index)=>{
        var pathInQuestion = dirname.slice(0,index+1).join(path.sep);
        if((!fs.isDir(pathInQuestion)) && pathInQuestion) fs.mkdirSync(pathInQuestion);
    });
};

Answer 8

I just published this module because I needed this functionality.

https://www.npmjs.org/package/filendir

It works like a wrapper around Node.js fs methods. So you can use it exactly the same way you would with fs.writeFile and fs.writeFileSync (both async and synchronous writes)

Answer 9

IDK why, but this mkdir always make an extra directory with the file name if also the filename is included in the path; e.g.

// fileName = './tmp/username/some-random.jpg';
try {
  mkdirSync(fileName, { recursive: true })
} catch (error) {};

Solution

It can be solved this way: fileName.split('/').slice(0, -1).join('/') which only make directories up to the last dir, not the filename itself.

// fileName = './tmp/username/some-random.jpg';
try {
  mkdirSync(fileName.split('/').slice(0, -1).join('/'), { recursive: true })
} catch (error) {};

Answer 10

As simple as this, create recursively if does not exist:

if (!fs.existsSync(dir)) {
  fs.mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true })
}

Answer 11

Here is a complete solution to create the folder with all the needed subfolders, and then writing the file, all in one function.

This is an example assuming you are creating a backup file and you want to pass the backup folder name in the function (hence the name of the variables)

  createFile(backupFolderName, fileName, fileContent) {
    const csvFileName = `${fileName}.csv`;

    const completeFilePath = join(process.cwd(), 'backups', backupFolderName);

    fs.mkdirSync(completeFilePath, { recursive: true });

    fs.writeFileSync(join(completeFilePath, csvFileName), fileContent, function (err) {
      if (err) throw err;
      console.log(csvFileName + ' file saved');
    })
  }