Virtual file format.
Vinyl is a very simple metadata object that describes a file. When you think of a file, two attributes come to mind: path
and contents
. These are the main attributes on a Vinyl object. A file does not necessarily represent something on your computer’s file system. You have files on S3, FTP, Dropbox, Box, CloudThingly.io and other services. Vinyl can be used to describe files from all of these sources.
While Vinyl provides a clean way to describe a file, we also need a way to access these files. Each file source needs what I call a "Vinyl adapter". A Vinyl adapter simply exposes a src(globs)
and a dest(folder)
method. Each return a stream. The src
stream produces Vinyl objects, and the dest
stream consumes Vinyl objects. Vinyl adapters can expose extra methods that might be specific to their input/output medium, such as the symlink
method vinyl-fs
provides.
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var Vinyl = require('vinyl');
var jsFile = new Vinyl({
cwd: '/',
base: '/test/',
path: '/test/file.js',
contents: new Buffer('var x = 123')
});
The constructor is used to create a new instance of Vinyl
. Each instance represents a separate file, directory or symlink.
All internally managed paths (cwd
, base
, path
, history
) are normalized and have trailing separators removed. See Normalization and concatenation for more information.
Options may be passed upon instantiation to create a file with specific properties.
Options are not mutated by the constructor.
The current working directory of the file.
Type: String
Default: process.cwd()
Used for calculating the relative
property. This is typically where a glob starts.
Type: String
Default: options.cwd
The full path to the file.
Type: String
Default: undefined
Stores the path history. If options.path
and options.history
are both passed, options.path
is appended to options.history
. All options.history
paths are normalized by the file.path
setter.
Type: Array
Default: []
(or [options.path]
if options.path
is passed)
The result of an fs.stat
call. This is how you mark the file as a directory or symbolic link. See isDirectory(), isSymbolic() and fs.Stats for more information.
Type: fs.Stats
Default: undefined
The contents of the file. If options.contents
is a ReadableStream
, it is wrapped in a cloneable-readable
stream.
Type: ReadableStream
, Buffer
, or null
Default: null
Any other option properties will be directly assigned to the new Vinyl object.
var Vinyl = require('vinyl');
var file = new Vinyl({ foo: 'bar' });
file.foo === 'bar'; // true
Each Vinyl object will have instance methods. Every method will be available but may return differently based on what properties were set upon instantiation or modified since.
Returns true
if the file contents are a Buffer
, otherwise false
.
Returns true
if the file contents are a Stream
, otherwise false
.
Returns true
if the file contents are null
, otherwise false
.
Returns true
if the file represents a directory, otherwise false
.
A file is considered a directory when:
file.isNull()
istrue
file.stat
is an objectfile.stat.isDirectory()
returnstrue
When constructing a Vinyl object, pass in a valid fs.Stats
object via options.stat
. If you are mocking the fs.Stats
object, you may need to stub the isDirectory()
method.
Returns true
if the file represents a symbolic link, otherwise false
.
A file is considered symbolic when:
file.isNull()
istrue
file.stat
is an objectfile.stat.isSymbolicLink()
returnstrue
When constructing a Vinyl object, pass in a valid fs.Stats
object via options.stat
. If you are mocking the fs.Stats
object, you may need to stub the isSymbolicLink()
method.
Returns a new Vinyl object with all attributes cloned.
By default custom attributes are cloned deeply.
If options
or options.deep
is false
, custom attributes will not be cloned deeply.
If file.contents
is a Buffer
and options.contents
is false
, the Buffer
reference will be reused instead of copied.
Returns a formatted-string interpretation of the Vinyl object. Automatically called by node's console.log
.
Each Vinyl object will have instance properties. Some may be unavailable based on what properties were set upon instantiation or modified since.
Gets and sets the contents of the file. If set to a ReadableStream
, it is wrapped in a cloneable-readable
stream.
Throws when set to any value other than a ReadableStream
, a Buffer
or null
.
Type: ReadableStream
, Buffer
, or null
Gets and sets current working directory. Will always be normalized and have trailing separators removed.
Throws when set to any value other than non-empty strings.
Type: String
Gets and sets base directory. Used for relative pathing (typically where a glob starts).
When null
or undefined
, it simply proxies the file.cwd
property. Will always be normalized and have trailing separators removed.
Throws when set to any value other than non-empty strings or null
/undefined
.
Type: String
Gets and sets the absolute pathname string or undefined
. Setting to a different value appends the new path to file.history
. If set to the same value as the current path, it is ignored. All new values are normalized and have trailing separators removed.
Throws when set to any value other than a string.
Type: String
Array of file.path
values the Vinyl object has had, from file.history[0]
(original) through file.history[file.history.length - 1]
(current). file.history
and its elements should normally be treated as read-only and only altered indirectly by setting file.path
.
Type: Array
Gets the result of path.relative(file.base, file.path)
.
Throws when set or when file.path
is not set.
Type: String
Example:
var file = new File({
cwd: '/',
base: '/test/',
path: '/test/file.js'
});
console.log(file.relative); // file.js
Gets and sets the dirname of file.path
. Will always be normalized and have trailing separators removed.
Throws when file.path
is not set.
Type: String
Example:
var file = new File({
cwd: '/',
base: '/test/',
path: '/test/file.js'
});
console.log(file.dirname); // /test
file.dirname = '/specs';
console.log(file.dirname); // /specs
console.log(file.path); // /specs/file.js
Gets and sets the basename of file.path
.
Throws when file.path
is not set.
Type: String
Example:
var file = new File({
cwd: '/',
base: '/test/',
path: '/test/file.js'
});
console.log(file.basename); // file.js
file.basename = 'file.txt';
console.log(file.basename); // file.txt
console.log(file.path); // /test/file.txt
Gets and sets stem (filename without suffix) of file.path
.
Throws when file.path
is not set.
Type: String
Example:
var file = new File({
cwd: '/',
base: '/test/',
path: '/test/file.js'
});
console.log(file.stem); // file
file.stem = 'foo';
console.log(file.stem); // foo
console.log(file.path); // /test/foo.js
Gets and sets extname of file.path
.
Throws when file.path
is not set.
Type: String
Example:
var file = new File({
cwd: '/',
base: '/test/',
path: '/test/file.js'
});
console.log(file.extname); // .js
file.extname = '.txt';
console.log(file.extname); // .txt
console.log(file.path); // /test/file.txt
Gets and sets the path where the file points to if it's a symbolic link. Will always be normalized and have trailing separators removed.
Throws when set to any value other than a string.
Type: String
Static method used for checking if an object is a Vinyl file. Use this method instead of instanceof
.
Takes an object and returns true
if it is a Vinyl file, otherwise returns false
.
Note: This method uses an internal flag that some older versions of Vinyl didn't expose.
Example:
var Vinyl = require('vinyl');
var file = new Vinyl();
var notAFile = {};
Vinyl.isVinyl(file); // true
Vinyl.isVinyl(notAFile); // false
Static method used by Vinyl when setting values inside the constructor or when copying properties in file.clone()
.
Takes a string property
and returns true
if the property is not used internally, otherwise returns false
.
This method is useful for inheritting from the Vinyl constructor. Read more in Extending Vinyl.
Example:
var Vinyl = require('vinyl');
Vinyl.isCustomProp('sourceMap'); // true
Vinyl.isCustomProp('path'); // false -> internal getter/setter
Since all properties are normalized in their setters, you can just concatenate with /
, and normalization takes care of it properly on all platforms.
Example:
var file = new File();
file.path = '/' + 'test' + '/' + 'foo.bar';
console.log(file.path);
// posix => /test/foo.bar
// win32 => \\test\\foo.bar
But never concatenate with \
, since that is a valid filename character on posix system.
When extending Vinyl into your own class with extra features, you need to think about a few things.
When you have your own properties that are managed internally, you need to extend the static isCustomProp
method to return false
when one of these properties is queried.
var Vinyl = require('vinyl');
var builtInProps = ['foo', '_foo'];
class SuperFile extends Vinyl {
constructor(options) {
super(options);
this._foo = 'example internal read-only value';
}
get foo() {
return this._foo;
}
static isCustomProp(name) {
return super.isCustomProp(name) && builtInProps.indexOf(name) === -1;
}
}
// `foo` won't be assigned to the object below
new SuperFile({ foo: "something" });
This makes properties foo
and _foo
skipped when passed in options to constructor(options)
so they don't get assigned to the new object and override your custom implementation. They also won't be copied when cloning. Note: The _foo
and foo
properties will still exist on the created/cloned object because you are assigning _foo
in the constructor and foo
is defined on the prototype.
Same goes for clone()
. If you have your own internal stuff that needs special handling during cloning, you should extend it to do so.
MIT