fs in Node.js Doesn't Understand ~/

Question

I'm trying to check if a directory exists as part of a command-line app in node.js. However, fs doesn't seem to understand ~/. For example, the following returns false...

> fs.existsSync('~/Documents')
false

...but this returns true...

> fs.existsSync('/Users/gtmtg/Documents')
true

...even though they're both the same thing.

Why does this happen, and is there are workaround for this? Thanks in advance!

[It's a Bash feature called "tilde expansion". It's a function of the shell, not the OS.](http://stackoverflow.com/a/1660054/612202) — dan-lee, Sep 16 '12 at 22:33

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 16 '12 at 22:35

9

That's because ~/ is supported by the command shell, not the file system APIs.

answered Sep 16 '12 at 22:35

JohnnyHK

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 22 '22 at 07:35

As an alternative, the user's home path (~) is usually stored in the environment variable HOME. So you can try using something like this:

fs.existsSync(`${process.env.HOME}/Documents`);

Or, you can create a function to process the tilde character, like this:

function parseTildeHome(inputPath) {
  return inputPath.replace('~', process.env.HOME);
}

fs.existsSync(parseTildeHome('~/Documents'));

fs in Node.js Doesn't Understand ~/

2 Answers2