read a file using the file-system package

Question

I am trying to read a file using the file-system package.

reference: https://www.npmjs.com/package/file-system

The file I am trying to read resides in the same directory as the file executing the read (visual below).

The code in the reduce2.js file is exactly this:

const fs = require('fs')

var output = fs.readFileSync('data.txt')

console.log(output);

This is the error I am getting when I run the file from the command line:

➜  js-practice node functional-programming-mpj/file-system-and-reduce/reduce2.js 
fs.js:638
  return binding.open(pathModule._makeLong(path), stringToFlags(flags), mode);
                 ^

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'data.txt'
    at Object.fs.openSync (fs.js:638:18)
    at Object.fs.readFileSync (fs.js:540:33)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/jackburum/tutorials/js-practice/functional-programming-mpj/file-system-and-reduce/reduce2.js:3:17)
    at Module._compi

which tells me that the file system module can't find the file, but I can't figure out why.

Some other things I have tried: - I tried using import as well instead of require - I tried explicitly declaring the current directory, like this

fs.readFileSync('./data.txt').

Do you know what I am doing wrong or have any thoughts on what I could try to make this work?

Marcos Casagrande · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-29 00:22:06Z

2

The problem is, you're executing node command from another directory: js-practice/.

For fs.readFileSync('./data.txt'); to work in your case you need to run node directly on file-system-and-reduce dir

file-system-and-reduce $ node reduce2.js

Otherwise node tries to search: js-practice/data.txt which doesn't exist in your case.

A good solution is to use: __dirname, along with path.join, in order to get the absolute path to the file, which will allow you to call the script from any location.

const fs = require('fs'); // Native fs module
const path = require('path');

const output = fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, 'data.txt'));

console.log(output);

Have in mind that the reference you provided, is not the native file system module.

Native: https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/fs.html (I recommend this)
3rd party: https://www.npmjs.com/package/file-system

edited May 29, 2018 at 0:22

answered May 29, 2018 at 0:07

Marcos Casagrande

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1 Comment

adamscott Over a year ago

Super helpful answer and got me through the problem. Thanks Marcos.

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