Copying A File In Node.js v8.5

Introduction

 

In this article, I am going to explain different ways to copy a file in node.js and will talk about copy function that is newly implemented in the brand new Node.js version 8.5.

  

Example 1

 

This is a good way to copy a file in node.js via a single line of code.

const fs = require('fs');

fs.createReadStream('SourceFile.txt').pipe(fs.createWriteStream('DestinationFile.txt'));

 Example 2

 

Some people also use "fs-extra" package to use the extra functions for file management.

 

what is fs-extra?

 

According to fs-extra definition, fs-extra adds file system methods that aren't included in the native fs module and adds the Promise Support to the fs methods. It should be a drop-in replacement for fs. 

 

You can download fs-extra like below.

npm install --save fs-extra

Now, you can use fs-extra like the following ways.

 

Method 1: using promises

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

// Async with promises:
fs.copy('SourceFile.txt', 'DestinationFile.txt')
 .then(() => console.log('success!'))
 .catch(err => console.error(err));

Method 2: using callbacks asynchronously

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

// Async with callbacks:
fs.copy('SourceFile.txt', 'DestinationFile.txt', err => {
 if (err) return console.error(err)
 console.log('success!')
});

Method 3: Synchronously

const fs = require('fs-extra')

try {
 fs.copySync('SourceFile.txt', 'DestinationFile.txt')
 console.log('success!')
} catch (err) {
 console.error(err)
}

And, there are a lot of ways to copy a file in node.js

 

File copy with the core fs module in 8.5.0

With Node.js 8.5, a new File System feature is shipped by which you can copy the files using the core fs module. 

 

File Copy Asynchronously

const fs = require('fs');

fs.copyFile('SourceFile.txt', 'DestinationFile.txt', (err) => {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log('SourceFile.txt was copied to DestinationFile.txt');
});

File Copy Synchronously

const fs = require('fs');

fs.copyFileSync('SourceFile.txt', 'DestinationFile.txt');