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     upload   if   path existsSync dir         fs mkdirSync dir  0744

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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   amp  amp  fs mkdirSync dir

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One Line Solution  Creates directory if NOT exist    import const fs   require  fs       in javascript import   as fs from  quot fs quot      in typescript import fs from  quot fs quot           in typescript     use  fs existsSync    assets     amp  amp  fs mkdirSync    assets      recursive  true

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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 lt void gt        return new Promise lt void gt           function resolve   value   void   PromiseLike lt void gt     gt  void              reject   reason   any    gt  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

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I had to create sub-directories if they didn t exist  I used this  const path   require  path    const fs   require  fs     function ensureDirectoryExists p          console log ensureDirectoryExists name   p        const d   path dirname p       if  d  amp  amp  d     p            ensureDirectoryExists d             if   fs existsSync d             fs mkdirSync d

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I have found and npm module that works like a charm for this  It s simply do a recursively mkdir when needed  like a  mkdir -p     https   www npmjs com package mkdirp

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Here is a little function to recursivlely create directories   const createDir    dir    gt         This will create a dir given a path such as    folder subfolder     const splitPath   dir split         splitPath reduce  path  subPath    gt        let currentPath      if subPath                currentPath   path         subPath        if   fs existsSync currentPath            fs mkdirSync currentPath                     else        currentPath   subPath            return currentPath

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fs exist   is deprecated  So I have used fs stat   to check the directory status  If the directory does not exist fs stat   throw an error with message like  no such file or directory   Then I have created a directory  const fs   require  fs   promises       const dir      dir   fs stat dir  catch async  err    gt      if  err message includes  no such file or directory          await fs mkdir dir

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Using async   await    const mkdirP   async  directory    gt      try       return await fs mkdirAsync directory       catch  error        if  error code     EEXIST           throw e                 You will need to promisify fs    import nodeFs from  fs   import bluebird from  bluebird    const fs   bluebird promisifyAll nodeFs

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No  for multiple reasons   The path module does not have an exists existsSync method   It is in the fs module    Perhaps you just made a typo in your question    The docs explicitly discourage you from using exists   fs exists   is an anachronism and exists only for historical reasons  There should almost never be a reason to use it in your own code  In particular  checking if a file exists before opening it is an anti-pattern that leaves you vulnerable to race conditions  another process may remove the file between the calls to fs exists   and fs open    Just open the file and handle the error when it s not there   Since we re talking about a directory rather than a file  this advice implies you should just unconditionally call mkdir and ignore EEXIST   In general  You should avoid the  Sync methods   They re blocking  which means absolutely nothing else in your program can happen while you go to the disk   This is a very expensive operation  and the time it takes breaks the core assumption of node s event loop  The  Sync methods are usually fine in single-purpose quick scripts  those that do one thing and then exit   but should almost never be used when you re writing a server  your server will be unable to respond to anyone for the entire duration of the I O requests   If multiple client requests require I O operations  your server will very quickly grind to a halt   The only time I d consider using  Sync methods in a server application is in an operation that happens once  and only once   at startup   For example  require actually uses readFileSync to load modules  Even then  you still have to be careful because lots of synchronous I O can unnecessarily slow down your server s startup time   Instead  you should use the asynchronous I O methods    So if we put together those pieces of advice  we get something like this  function ensureExists path  mask  cb        if  typeof mask     function        allow the  mask  parameter to be optional         cb   mask          mask   0777            fs mkdir path  mask  function err            if  err                if  err code     EEXIST   cb null      ignore the error if the folder already exists             else cb err      something else went wrong           else cb null      successfully created folder            And we can use it like this  ensureExists   dirname     upload   0744  function err        if  err     handle folder creation error     else    we re all good       Of course  this doesn t account for edge cases like  What happens if the folder gets deleted while your program is running   assuming you only check that it exists once during startup  What happens if the folder already exists but with the wrong permissions

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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    gt           check if dir exist     fs stat path   err  stats    gt            if  stats isDirectory                     do nothing           else                  if the given path is not a directory  create a directory             fs mkdirSync path

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var filessystem   require  fs        var dir      path subpath         if   filessystem existsSync dir            filessystem mkdirSync dir        else               console log  Directory already exist            This may help you

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With the fs-extra package you can do this with a one-liner   const fs   require  fs-extra     const dir     tmp this path does not exist   fs ensureDirSync dir

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var fs   require  fs    var dir      tmp    if   fs existsSync dir        fs mkdirSync dir

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With Node 10   ES6   import path from  path   import fs from  fs     async      gt      const dir   path join   dirname   upload       try       await fs promises mkdir dir       catch  error        if  error code      EEXIST              Something already exists  but is it a file or directory        const lstat   await fs promises lstat dir          if   lstat isDirectory              throw error                else         throw error

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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    gt        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   gt           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

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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   gt         if  err  amp  amp  err code     EEXIST   throw  up         safely do your stuff here             Optionally add a second argument with the mode      Other thoughts    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        gt      do something       mkdir   path        then myFunc       catch err   gt    if  err code     EEXIST   throw err  myFunc       You can make your own promise method  something like  untested    let mkdirAsync    path  mode    gt  new Promise      resolve  reject    gt  mkdir  path  mode         err   gt   err  amp  amp  err code      EEXIST     reject err    resolve                 For synchronous checking  you can use   fs existsSync path     fs mkdirSync path   Or you can use a library  the two most popular being    mkdirp  just does folders  fsextra  supersets fs  adds lots of useful stuff

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From the docs this is how you do it asynchronously  and recursively   const fs   require  fs    const fsPromises   fs promises   fsPromises access dir  fs constants F OK      catch async     gt                    await fs mkdir dir    recursive  true    function err                        if  err                          console log err

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The best solution would be to use the npm module called node-fs-extra  It has a method called mkdir which creates the directory you mentioned  If you give a long directory path  it will create the parent folders automatically  The module is a super set of npm module fs  so you can use all the functions in fs also if you add this module

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var dir    path to dir   try     fs mkdirSync dir     catch e      if  e code     EEXIST   throw e

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

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