The Node.js fs core module provides many handy methods you can use to work with folders.

Check if a folder exists

Use fs.access() to check if the folder exists and Node can access it with its permissions.

Create a new folder

Use fs.mkdir() or fs.mkdirSync() to create a new folder.

const fs = require('fs')

const folderName = '/Users/flavio/test'

try {
  if (!fs.existsSync(folderName)) {
    fs.mkdirSync(folderName)
  }
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err)
}

Read the content of a directory

Use fs.readdir() or fs.readdirSync() to read the contents of a directory.

This piece of code reads the content of a folder, both files and subfolders, and returns their relative path:

const fs = require('fs')
const path = require('path')

const folderPath = '/Users/flavio'

fs.readdirSync(folderPath)

You can get the full path:

fs.readdirSync(folderPath).map(fileName => {
  return path.join(folderPath, fileName)
}

You can also filter the results to only return the files, and exclude the folders:

const isFile = fileName => {
  return fs.lstatSync(fileName).isFile()
}

fs.readdirSync(folderPath).map(fileName => {
  return path.join(folderPath, fileName)
}).filter(isFile)

Rename a folder

Use fs.rename() or fs.renameSync() to rename a folder. The first parameter is the current path, the second the new path:

const fs = require('fs')

fs.rename('/Users/flavio', '/Users/roger', err => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err)
    return
  }
  //done
})

fs.renameSync() is the synchronous version:

const fs = require('fs')

try {
  fs.renameSync('/Users/flavio', '/Users/roger')
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err)
}

Remove a folder

Use fs.rmdir() or fs.rmdirSync() to remove a folder.

Removing a folder that has content requires extra handling.

For that, use the fs-extra module, a well-maintained drop-in replacement for fs with extra features. Its remove() method removes a folder and its contents.

Install it:

npm install fs-extra

then use it like this:

const fs = require('fs-extra')

const folder = '/Users/flavio'

fs.remove(folder, (err) => {
  if (err) console.error(err)
})

It can also be used with promises:

fs.remove(folder).then(() => {
  // done
}).catch(err => {
  console.error(err)
})

or with async/await:

async function removeFolder(folder) {
  try {
    await fs.remove(folder)
    // done
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(err)
  }
}

const folder = '/Users/flavio'
removeFolder(folder)

Lessons in this unit:

0:	Introduction
1:	How to check if a file exists in Node.js
2:	How to create an empty file in Node.js
3:	How to get the names of all the files in a folder in Node
4:	How to get the last updated date of a file using Node.js
5:	How to remove a file with Node.js
6:	How to write a JSON object to file in Node.js
7:	How to empty a folder in Node.js
8:	Working with file descriptors in Node
9:	Node File Paths
10:	Node file stats
11:	▶︎ Working with folders in Node
12:	How to use the Node.js fs module with async/await
13:	How to get the current folder in Node
14:	How to get the file extension in Node.js from the MIME type
15:	How to get the file extension in Node.js
16:	How to list files in a folder in Node
17:	How to mass rename files in Node.js
18:	Node.js get all files in a folder recursively
19:	Incrementing multiple folders numbers at once using Node.js
20:	Save some text to a file in Node.js