How to create a directory if it doesn't exist using Node.js?

Question

Is this the right way to create a directory if it doesn\'t exist. It should have full permission for the script and readable by others.

var dir = __dirname +         


        

Answer 1

I'd like to add a Typescript Promise refactor of josh3736's answer.

It does the same thing and has the same edge cases, it just happens to use Promises, typescript typedefs and works with "use strict".

// https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system_permissions#Numeric_notation
const allRWEPermissions = parseInt("0777", 8);

function ensureFilePathExists(path: string, mask: number = allRWEPermissions): Promise<void> {
    return new Promise<void>(
        function(resolve: (value?: void | PromiseLike<void>) => void,
            reject: (reason?: any) => void): void{
            mkdir(path, mask, function(err: NodeJS.ErrnoException): void {
                if (err) {
                    if (err.code === "EEXIST") {
                        resolve(null); // ignore the error if the folder already exists
                    } else {
                        reject(err); // something else went wrong
                    }
                } else {
                    resolve(null); // successfully created folder
                }
            });
    });
}

Answer 2

You can just use mkdir and catch the error if the folder exists.
This is async (so best practice) and safe.

fs.mkdir('/path', err => { 
    if (err && err.code != 'EEXIST') throw 'up'
    .. safely do your stuff here  
    })

(Optionally add a second argument with the mode.)

---

Other thoughts:

1. You could use then or await by using native promisify.

   const util = require('util'), fs = require('fs');
   const mkdir = util.promisify(fs.mkdir);
   var myFunc = () => { ..do something.. } 
   
   mkdir('/path')
       .then(myFunc)
       .catch(err => { if (err.code != 'EEXIST') throw err; myFunc() })
   

2. You can make your own promise method, something like (untested):

   let mkdirAsync = (path, mode) => new Promise(
      (resolve, reject) => mkdir (path, mode, 
         err => (err && err.code !== 'EEXIST') ? reject(err) : resolve()
         )
      )
   

3. For synchronous checking, you can use:

   fs.existsSync(path) || fs.mkdirSync(path)
   

4. Or you can use a library, the two most popular being

   • mkdirp (just does folders)
   • fsextra (supersets fs, adds lots of useful stuff)

Answer 3

Here is a little function to recursivlely create directories:

const createDir = (dir) => {
  // This will create a dir given a path such as './folder/subfolder' 
  const splitPath = dir.split('/');
  splitPath.reduce((path, subPath) => {
    let currentPath;
    if(subPath != '.'){
      currentPath = path + '/' + subPath;
      if (!fs.existsSync(currentPath)){
        fs.mkdirSync(currentPath);
      }
    }
    else{
      currentPath = subPath;
    }
    return currentPath
  }, '')
}

Answer 4

You can use node File System command fs.stat to check if dir exists and fs.mkdir to create a directory with callback, or fs.mkdirSync to create a directory without callback, like this example:

//first require fs
const fs = require('fs');

// Create directory if not exist (function)
const createDir = (path) => {
    // check if dir exist
    fs.stat(path, (err, stats) => {
        if (stats.isDirectory()) {
            // do nothing
        } else {
            // if the given path is not a directory, create a directory
            fs.mkdirSync(path);
        }
    });
};

Answer 5

The mkdir method has the ability to recursively create any directories in a path that don't exist, and ignore the ones that do.

From the Node v10/11 docs:

// Creates /tmp/a/apple, regardless of whether `/tmp` and /tmp/a exist.
fs.mkdir('/tmp/a/apple', { recursive: true }, (err) => {
    if (err) throw err;
});

NOTE: You'll need to import the built-in fs module first.

Now here's a little more robust example that leverages native ES Modules (with flag enabled and .mjs extension), handles non-root paths, and accounts for full pathnames:

import fs from 'fs';
import path from 'path';

createDirectories(pathname) {
   const __dirname = path.resolve();
   pathname = pathname.replace(/^\.*\/|\/?[^\/]+\.[a-z]+|\/$/g, ''); // Remove leading directory markers, and remove ending /file-name.extension
   fs.mkdir(path.resolve(__dirname, pathname), { recursive: true }, e => {
       if (e) {
           console.error(e);
       } else {
           console.log('Success');
       }
    });
}

You can use it like createDirectories('/components/widget/widget.js');.

And of course, you'd probably want to get more fancy by using promises with async/await to leverage file creation in a more readable synchronous-looking way when the directories are created; but, that's beyond the question's scope.

Answer 6

Just in case any one interested in the one line version. :)

//or in typescript: import * as fs from 'fs';
const fs = require('fs');
!fs.existsSync(dir) && fs.mkdirSync(dir);