fsMate A modular collection of file system utilities for Node.js

August 15, 2025

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by indian modassir

It simplifies working with files and directories by providing a higher-level, promise-based API for common file operations such as checking access permissions, creating files/directories, copying files, and mirroring directories.

Installation

npm install fsmate

Usage

Use this syntax when working in Node.js environments that follow the CommonJS module system.

CommonJS

const fsMate = require('fsmate');

Note: The deprecated constants fs.F_OK, fs.R_OK, fs.W_OK, & fs.X_OK are not exported on Node.js v24.0.0+; please use their fs.constants equivalents.

ESM

There is also an fsmate/esm import, that supports both default and named exports. However, note that fs methods are not included in fsmate/esm; you still need to import fs and/or fs/promises seperately:

import fsMate from 'fsmate/esm';
import {remove, copy, rename} = 'fsmate/esm';

but you probably want to just use regular fsmate instead of fsmate/esm for default exports:

import fsMate from 'fsmate';

Async vs Async/Await vs Sync

All async methods will return a promise

JavaScript handles file operations in three ways: Promises run tasks in the background with .then() / .catch(), async/await makes them look sequential, and synchronous methods pause execution until the task finishes—simple and straightforward.

Example:

const fsMate = require('fsmate');

// Async with Promises:
fsMate.mirror('/home/user/myDir', '/home/user/mirrorDir')
.then(() => console.log('success'))
.catch(err => console.log(err));

// With async/await:
async function mirror(originDir, targetDir) {
  try {
    await fsMate.mirror(originDir, targetDir);
    console.log('success');
  } catch(err) {
    console.log(err);
  }
}

mirror('/home/user/myDir', '/home/user/mirrorDir');

// Sync:
try {
  fsMate.mirrorSync('/home/user/myDir', '/home/user/mirrorDir');
  console.log('success');
} catch(err) {
  console.log(err);
}

Learn for more Documentation see: more

Methods And Features

Async

Method	Description
isExecutable	Check if a file/directory has execute permissions.
isFile	Check if the given path is a regular file.
isDir	Check if the given path is a directory.
isLink	Check if the given path is a symbolic link.
isReadable	Check if a file/directory has read permissions.
isWritable	Check if a file/directory has write permissions.
mkdir	Creates a directories recursively.
mkfile	Create an empty files (or overwrite if specified).
exists	Check if a file or directory exists.
touch	Create a file if it doesn’t exist or update its timestamp.
rename	Rename or move a file/directory.
scandir	List files and directories in a given folder.
remove	Safely remove files or directories (with rename trick).
rm	Remove files or directories using native `fs.rm`.
mirror	Recursively copy an entire directory tree.
copy	Copy a single file with overwrite control.
empty	Remove all contents inside a file or directory without deleting it.
prependFile	Add content at the beginning of a file.
readFile	Read a file’s content (optionally parse JSON).
readLine	Read a file line-by-line with range support.
writeFile	Write content to a file (overwrites existing).
appendFile	Append content to the end of a file.
dumpFile	Atomically write a file by first writing to a temp file.

Sync

Method	Description
isExecutableSync	Sync check for execute permissions.
isLinkSync	Sync check if path is a symbolic link.
isFileSync	Sync check if path is a regular file.
isDirSync	Sync check if path is a directory.
isReadableSync	Sync check for read permissions.
isWritableSync	Sync check for write permissions.
mkdirSync	Sync creates a directories recursively.
mkfileSync	Create an empty files (or overwrite if specified).
touchSync	Sync create/update file timestamp.
renameSync	Sync rename or move a file/directory.
scandirSync	Sync list directory contents.
removeSync	Sync safe remove (with rename trick).
appendFileSync	Sync append content to a file.
emptySync	Sync remove all contents inside a file/directory.
mirrorSync	Sync recursively copy a directory tree.
copySync	Sync copy a single file.
readFileSync	Read a file’s content (optionally parse JSON).
rmSync	Sync remove file/directory using native `fs.rm`.
readLineSync	Sync read file line-by-line.
writeFileSync	Sync write content to a file.
prependFileSync	Sync add content at file start.
dumpFileSync	Sync atomic file write.

Other Methods

Method	Description
multiStream	Merge multiple readable streams into one.
stringify	Convert different data types to a string safely.
tmpName	Generate a random temporary file/directory name.
tempNam	Generate a SHA1-hash-based temp file name.
createInputStream	Convert string, Buffer, or object into a readable stream.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

License

Licensed Under MIT

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by indian modassir