What are the purposes and differences between these two modules in Node.js? Does one depend on the other?
2 Answers
What are the purposes and differences between these two modules in Node.js?
The fs module is for actually operating on files, directories and volumes (assuming you have already built an appropriate path for the target). The path module is for manipulating paths which you may then use with the fs module since many fs methods accept a path as an argument.
The fs module contains functions for manipulating files such as:
fs.readFile()
fs.mkdir()
fs.open()
fs.stat()
etc...
The path module contains functions for manipulating file paths such as:
path.join()
path.normalize()
path.extname()
path.parse()
You can read the entire list of functions in each module yourself:
The descriptions should be pretty obvious what they do.
Does one depend on the other?
Probably not. The fs module assumes you already have a valid path that can be passed right on through to the OS. The path module only builds or parses paths, it doesn't actually do operations on files.
It would be very common to use the two together. For example, you might use the path module to construct a path which you then pass to an fs module function.
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Path module is actually used to construct a valid path from several chunks which never validates in your file system or you can say drives/volumes and gives you an absolute path in string form. Let say, you have drive, the relative path of a file to that particular drive, filename, and extension. In that case, you can construct a valid filename by combining it.
FS module meant to manipulate the filesystem. Like creating a directory, file, renaming etc...
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