How to create full path with node's fs.mkdirSync?

Question

I\'m trying to create a full path if it doesn\'t exist.

The code looks like this:

var fs = require(\'fs\');
if (!fs.existsSync(newDest)) fs.mkdirSync         


        

Answer 1

Edit

NodeJS version 10.12.0 has added a native support for both mkdir and mkdirSync to create a directory recursively with recursive: true option as the following:

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

And if you prefer fs Promises API, you can write

fs.promises.mkdir(targetDir, { recursive: true });

Original Answer

Create directories recursively if they do not exist! (Zero dependencies)

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

function mkDirByPathSync(targetDir, { isRelativeToScript = false } = {}) {
  const sep = path.sep;
  const initDir = path.isAbsolute(targetDir) ? sep : '';
  const baseDir = isRelativeToScript ? __dirname : '.';

  return targetDir.split(sep).reduce((parentDir, childDir) => {
    const curDir = path.resolve(baseDir, parentDir, childDir);
    try {
      fs.mkdirSync(curDir);
    } catch (err) {
      if (err.code === 'EEXIST') { // curDir already exists!
        return curDir;
      }

      // To avoid `EISDIR` error on Mac and `EACCES`-->`ENOENT` and `EPERM` on Windows.
      if (err.code === 'ENOENT') { // Throw the original parentDir error on curDir `ENOENT` failure.
        throw new Error(`EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '${parentDir}'`);
      }

      const caughtErr = ['EACCES', 'EPERM', 'EISDIR'].indexOf(err.code) > -1;
      if (!caughtErr || caughtErr && curDir === path.resolve(targetDir)) {
        throw err; // Throw if it's just the last created dir.
      }
    }

    return curDir;
  }, initDir);
}

Usage

// Default, make directories relative to current working directory.
mkDirByPathSync('path/to/dir');

// Make directories relative to the current script.
mkDirByPathSync('path/to/dir', {isRelativeToScript: true});

// Make directories with an absolute path.
mkDirByPathSync('/path/to/dir');

Demo

Try It!

Explanations

• [UPDATE] This solution handles platform-specific errors like EISDIR for Mac and EPERM and EACCES for Windows. Thanks to all the reporting comments by @PediT., @JohnQ, @deed02392, @robyoder and @Almenon.
• This solution handles both relative and absolute paths. Thanks to @john comment.
• In the case of relative paths, target directories will be created (resolved) in the current working directory. To Resolve them relative to the current script dir, pass {isRelativeToScript: true}.
• Using path.sep and path.resolve(), not just / concatenation, to avoid cross-platform issues.
• Using fs.mkdirSync and handling the error with try/catch if thrown to handle race conditions: another process may add the file between the calls to fs.existsSync() and fs.mkdirSync() and causes an exception.
  • The other way to achieve that could be checking if a file exists then creating it, I.e, if (!fs.existsSync(curDir) fs.mkdirSync(curDir);. But this is an anti-pattern that leaves the code vulnerable to race conditions. Thanks to @GershomMaes comment about the directory existence check.
• Requires Node v6 and newer to support destructuring. (If you have problems implementing this solution with old Node versions, just leave me a comment)

Answer 2

fs-extra adds file system methods that aren't included in the native fs module. It is a drop in replacement for fs.

Install fs-extra

$ npm install --save fs-extra

const fs = require("fs-extra");
// Make sure the output directory is there.
fs.ensureDirSync(newDest);

There are sync and async options.

https://github.com/jprichardson/node-fs-extra/blob/master/docs/ensureDir.md

Answer 3

Example for Windows (no extra dependencies and error handling)

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

let dir = "C:\\temp\\dir1\\dir2\\dir3";

function createDirRecursively(dir) {
    if (!fs.existsSync(dir)) {        
        createDirRecursively(path.join(dir, ".."));
        fs.mkdirSync(dir);
    }
}

createDirRecursively(dir); //creates dir1\dir2\dir3 in C:\temp

Answer 4

const fs = require('fs');

try {
    fs.mkdirSync(path, { recursive: true });
} catch (error) {
    // this make script keep running, even when folder already exist
    console.log(error);
}

Answer 5

I had issues with the recursive option of fs.mkdir so I made a function that does the following:

1. Creates a list of all directories, starting with the final target dir and working up to the root parent.
2. Creates a new list of needed directories for the mkdir function to work

3. Makes each directory needed, including the final

   function createDirectoryIfNotExistsRecursive(dirname) {
       return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
          const fs = require('fs');
   
          var slash = '/';
   
          // backward slashes for windows
          if(require('os').platform() === 'win32') {
             slash = '\\';
          }
          // initialize directories with final directory
          var directories_backwards = [dirname];
          var minimize_dir = dirname;
          while (minimize_dir = minimize_dir.substring(0, minimize_dir.lastIndexOf(slash))) {
             directories_backwards.push(minimize_dir);
          }
   
          var directories_needed = [];
   
          //stop on first directory found
          for(const d in directories_backwards) {
             if(!(fs.existsSync(directories_backwards[d]))) {
                directories_needed.push(directories_backwards[d]);
             } else {
                break;
             }
          }
   
          //no directories missing
          if(!directories_needed.length) {
             return resolve();
          }
   
          // make all directories in ascending order
          var directories_forwards = directories_needed.reverse();
   
          for(const d in directories_forwards) {
             fs.mkdirSync(directories_forwards[d]);
          }
   
          return resolve();
       });
    }
   

Answer 6

Now with NodeJS >= 10.12.0, you can use fs.mkdirSync(path, { recursive: true }) fs.mkdirSync