README.md

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Unlink

Remove a directory entry.

Installation

npm install @stdlib/fs-unlink

Alternatively,

• To load the package in a website via a script tag without installation and bundlers, use the ES Module available on the esm branch (see README).
• If you are using Deno, visit the deno branch (see README for usage intructions).
• For use in Observable, or in browser/node environments, use the Universal Module Definition (UMD) build available on the umd branch (see README).
• To use as a general utility for the command line, install the corresponding CLI package globally.

The branches.md file summarizes the available branches and displays a diagram illustrating their relationships.

To view installation and usage instructions specific to each branch build, be sure to explicitly navigate to the respective README files on each branch, as linked to above.

Usage

var unlink = require( '@stdlib/fs-unlink' );

unlink( path, clbk )

Asynchronously removes a directory entry specified by path.

var join = require( 'path' ).join;
var fpath = join( __dirname, 'examples', 'fixtures', 'file.txt' );

unlink( fpath, done );

function done( error ) {
    if ( error ) {
        throw error;
    }
}

unlink.sync( path )

Synchronously removes a directory entry specified by path.

var join = require( 'path' ).join;
var fpath = join( __dirname, 'examples', 'fixtures', 'file.txt' );

var err = unlink.sync( fpath );
if ( err instanceof Error ) {
    throw err;
}

Notes

• If a provided path is a symbolic link, the function removes the symbolic link named by the path and does not affect any file or directory named by the contents of the symbolic link. Otherwise, the function removes the link named by the provided path and decrements the link count of the file referenced by the link.

  When a file's link count becomes 0 and no process has the file open, the space occupied by the file is freed and the file is no longer accessible. If one or more processes have the file open when the last link is removed, the link is removed before the function returns; however, the removal of file contents is postponed until all references to the file are closed.

  If the path refers to a socket, FIFO, or device, processes which have the object open may continue to use it.

• The path argument should not be a directory. To remove a directory, use rmdir().

• The difference between unlink.sync and fs.unlinkSync() is that fs.unlinkSync() will throw if an error is encountered (e.g., if given a non-existent path) and this API will return an error. Hence, the following anti-pattern

  var fs = require( 'fs' );
  
  // Check for path existence to prevent an error being thrown...
  if ( fs.existsSync( '/path/to' ) ) {
      fs.unlinkSync( '/path/to/file.txt' );
  }

  can be replaced by an approach which addresses existence via error handling.

  var unlink = require( '@stdlib/fs-unlink' );
  
  // Explicitly handle the error...
  var err = unlink.sync( '/path/to/file.txt' );
  if ( err instanceof Error ) {
      // You choose what to do...
      throw err;
  }

Examples

var join = require( 'path' ).join;
var readFile = require( '@stdlib/fs-read-file' ).sync;
var writeFile = require( '@stdlib/fs-write-file' ).sync;
var exists = require( '@stdlib/fs-exists' ).sync;
var unlink = require( '@stdlib/fs-unlink' ).sync;

var src = join( __dirname, 'examples', 'fixtures', 'file.txt' );
var dest = join( __dirname, 'examples', 'tmp.txt' );

// Create a temporary file:
writeFile( dest, readFile( src ) );

// Confirm that the temporary file exists:
console.log( exists( dest ) );
// => true

// Delete the temporary file:
unlink( dest );

// Confirm that the temporary file no longer exists:
console.log( exists( dest ) );
// => false

---

CLI

Installation

To use as a general utility, install the CLI package globally

npm install -g @stdlib/fs-unlink-cli

Usage

Usage: unlink [options] <path>

Options:

  -h,    --help                Print this message.
  -V,    --version             Print the package version.

Notes

• Relative paths are resolved relative to the current working directory.
• Errors are written to stderr.

Examples

$ unlink ./examples/fixtures/file.txt

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See Also

• @stdlib/fs-exists: test whether a path exists on the filesystem.

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Notice

This package is part of stdlib, a standard library for JavaScript and Node.js, with an emphasis on numerical and scientific computing. The library provides a collection of robust, high performance libraries for mathematics, statistics, streams, utilities, and more.

For more information on the project, filing bug reports and feature requests, and guidance on how to develop stdlib, see the main project repository.

Community

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License

See LICENSE.

Copyright

Copyright © 2016-2024. The Stdlib Authors.