How to download a file with Node.js (without using third-party libraries)?

Question

How do I download a file with Node.js without using third-party libraries?

I don\'t need anything special. I only want to download a file from a giv

Answer 1

Hi，I think you can use child_process module and curl command.

const cp = require('child_process');

let download = async function(uri, filename){
    let command = `curl -o ${filename}  '${uri}'`;
    let result = cp.execSync(command);
};


async function test() {
    await download('http://zhangwenning.top/20181221001417.png', './20181221001417.png')
}

test()

In addition，when you want download large、multiple files，you can use cluster module to use more cpu cores.

Answer 2

As Michelle Tilley said, but with the appropriate control flow:

var http = require('http');
var fs = require('fs');

var download = function(url, dest, cb) {
  var file = fs.createWriteStream(dest);
  http.get(url, function(response) {
    response.pipe(file);
    file.on('finish', function() {
      file.close(cb);
    });
  });
}

Without waiting for the finish event, naive scripts may end up with an incomplete file.

Edit: Thanks to @Augusto Roman for pointing out that cb should be passed to file.close, not called explicitly.

Answer 3

I suggest you to use res.download same as follow:

app.get('/download', function(req, res){
  const file = `${__dirname}/folder/abc.csv`;
  res.download(file); // Set disposition and send it.
});

Answer 4

function download(url, dest, cb) {

  var request = http.get(url, function (response) {

    const settings = {
      flags: 'w',
      encoding: 'utf8',
      fd: null,
      mode: 0o666,
      autoClose: true
    };

    // response.pipe(fs.createWriteStream(dest, settings));
    var file = fs.createWriteStream(dest, settings);
    response.pipe(file);

    file.on('finish', function () {
      let okMsg = {
        text: `File downloaded successfully`
      }
      cb(okMsg);
      file.end(); 
    });
  }).on('error', function (err) { // Handle errors
    fs.unlink(dest); // Delete the file async. (But we don't check the result)
    let errorMsg = {
      text: `Error in file downloadin: ${err.message}`
    }
    if (cb) cb(errorMsg);
  });
};

Answer 5

Solution with timeout, prevent memory leak :

The following code is based on Brandon Tilley's answer :

var http = require('http'),
    fs = require('fs');

var request = http.get("http://example12345.com/yourfile.html", function(response) {
    if (response.statusCode === 200) {
        var file = fs.createWriteStream("copy.html");
        response.pipe(file);
    }
    // Add timeout.
    request.setTimeout(12000, function () {
        request.abort();
    });
});

Don't make file when you get an error, and prefere to use timeout to close your request after X secondes.

Answer 6

const download = (url, path) => new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
http.get(url, response => {
    const statusCode = response.statusCode;

    if (statusCode !== 200) {
        return reject('Download error!');
    }

    const writeStream = fs.createWriteStream(path);
    response.pipe(writeStream);

    writeStream.on('error', () => reject('Error writing to file!'));
    writeStream.on('finish', () => writeStream.close(resolve));
});}).catch(err => console.error(err));