Move & Copy Files In NodeJS (Simple Examples)

Welcome to a tutorial on how to move and copy files in NodeJS. Need to back up some files in NodeJS? Move some old files to another folder?

  • To copy a file in NodeJS – require("fs").copyFileSync("SOURCE", "TARGET")
  • To move a file in NodeJS – require("fs").renameSync("SOURCE", "TARGET")

That covers the quick basics, but read on if you need more examples!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

DOWNLOAD & NOTES

Here is the download link to the example code, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything.

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Source code on GitHub Gist

Just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

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MOVE & COPY FILES IN NODEJS

All right, let us now get into the examples of how to move and copy files in NodeJS.

 

1) COPY FILES

1-copy.js
// (A) FILE SYSTEM MODULE
const fs = require("fs"),
      source = "./SOURCE.txt",
      target = "./TARGET.txt";

// (B) COPY SYNC
try {
  fs.copyFileSync(source, target);
  console.log(`Copied ${source} to ${target}`);
} catch (err) {
  console.log("Error copying file");
}

// (C) COPY ASYNC
fs.copyFile(source, target, err => {
  if (err) { console.log(err); }
  else { console.log(`Copied ${source} to ${target}`); }
});

This should be self-explanatory, we use copyFile() or copyFileSync() to copy files. Simple.

 

2) MOVE FILES

2-move.js
// (A) FILE SYSTEM MODULE
const fs = require("fs"),
      source = "./SOURCE.txt",
      target = "./FOLDER/TARGET.txt";

// (B) MOVE SYNC
try {
  fs.renameSync(source, target);
  console.log(`Moved ${source} to ${target}`);
} catch (err) {
  console.log("Error copying file");
}

// (C) MOVE ASYNC
fs.rename(source, target, err => {
  if (err) { console.log(err); }
  else { console.log(`Moved ${source} to ${target}`); }
});

Yep, there’s no such thing as moveFile() in Node. We simply rename() the file to move it.

 

 

3) RECURSIVE COPY THE ENTIRE FOLDER

3-copy-all.js
// (A) FS-EXTRA MODULE
// npm install fs-extra
// https://www.npmjs.com/package/fs-extra
const fse = require("fs-extra");

// (B) COPY
try {
  fse.copySync("./SOURCE/", "./TARGET/");
  console.log("COPY OK");
} catch (err) {
  console.log(err);
}

NodeJS does not have a native “copy all” function. So to copy an entire folder recursively, the easiest way is to use a module such as fs-extrafse.copySync("SOURCE", "DESTINATION") and that’s it.

P.S. To move the entire folder, there is a corresponding moveSync().

 

4) COPY FILES WITH EXTENSION

4-copy-ext.js
// (A) LOAD MODULES
const path = require("path"),
      fs = require("fs");

// (B) SOURCE & TARGET FOLDERS
const source = path.join(__dirname, "SOURCE/"),
      target = path.join(__dirname, "TARGET/"),
      ext = ".txt";

// (C) LOOP THROUGH FILES
fs.readdirSync(source).forEach((file) => {
  if (path.extname(file).toLowerCase() == ext) {
    fs.copyFileSync(source + file, target + file);
    console.log(`Copied ${source + file} to ${target + file}`);
  }
});

To copy files of a certain extension – A common way is to loop through all the files, check the file extension, then only copy those that match.

 

 

EXTRAS

That’s all for the tutorial, and here is a small section on some extras and links that may be useful to you.

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

 

THE END

Thank you for reading, and we have come to the end. I hope that it has helped you to better understand, and if you want to share anything with this guide, please feel free to comment below. Good luck and happy coding!