fs

Filesystem operations using POSIX file I/O. Both sync and async APIs are available.

Synchronous

fs.readFileSync(path)

Read the entire contents of a file as a string.

const content = fs.readFileSync("data.txt");
console.log(content);

Returns an empty string if the file doesn't exist.

When the result is assigned to a Uint8Array variable, the file is read in binary mode ("rb") and the raw bytes are returned:

const data: Uint8Array = fs.readFileSync("image.png");
console.log(data.length); // exact byte count, including null bytes

fs.writeFileSync(path, data)

Write a string to a file, replacing the file if it already exists.

fs.writeFileSync("output.txt", "hello world");

When the second argument is a Uint8Array, the file is written in binary mode using the array's length (not strlen), so null bytes are preserved:

const data = new Uint8Array(4);
data[0] = 0x89;
data[1] = 0x50;
data[2] = 0x00; // null byte — preserved in binary write
data[3] = 0x47;
fs.writeFileSync("output.bin", data);

Returns 0 on success, -1 on error.

fs.appendFileSync(path, data)

Append a string to a file.

fs.appendFileSync("log.txt", "new line\n");

fs.existsSync(path)

Check if a file exists.

if (fs.existsSync("config.json")) {
  const cfg = fs.readFileSync("config.json");
}

fs.unlinkSync(path)

Delete a file.

fs.unlinkSync("temp.txt");

Returns 0 on success, -1 on error.

fs.mkdirSync(path)

Create a directory.

fs.mkdirSync("output");

fs.readdirSync(path)

List files in a directory. Excludes . and ...

const files = fs.readdirSync(".");
files.forEach((f: string) => {
  console.log(f);
});

fs.statSync(path)

Get file metadata.

const stat = fs.statSync("data.txt");
console.log(stat.size);          // number — file size in bytes
console.log(stat.isFile);        // boolean
console.log(stat.isDirectory);   // boolean

fs.renameSync(oldPath, newPath)

Rename or move a file.

fs.renameSync("old.txt", "new.txt");

fs.copyFileSync(src, dest)

Copy a file.

fs.copyFileSync("original.txt", "backup.txt");

Async (Promise-based)

All async methods return a Promise and run on the libuv thread pool via uv_queue_work.

fs.readFile(path)

const content: string = await fs.readFile("data.txt");

fs.writeFile(path, data)

await fs.writeFile("output.txt", "hello");

fs.readdir(path)

const files: string[] = await fs.readdir(".");

fs.stat(path)

const stat = await fs.stat("data.txt");
console.log(stat.size);

fs.unlink(path)

await fs.unlink("temp.txt");

fs.mkdir(path)

await fs.mkdir("output");

fs.appendFile(path, data)

await fs.appendFile("log.txt", "new line\n");

fs.rename(oldPath, newPath)

await fs.rename("old.txt", "new.txt");

fs.copyFile(src, dest)

await fs.copyFile("original.txt", "backup.txt");

Native Implementation

API	Maps to
fs.readFileSync()	fopen() + fread()
fs.writeFileSync()	fopen() + fwrite()
fs.existsSync()	access()
fs.unlinkSync()	unlink()
fs.readdirSync()	opendir() + readdir()
fs.statSync()	stat()
fs.renameSync()	rename()
fs.copyFileSync()	fopen() + fread() + fwrite()
Async variants	Same POSIX calls on uv_queue_work thread pool