I want to use Node.js to create a simple logging system which prints a line before the past line into a .txt file. However, I don't know how the file system functionality from Node.js works.
Can someone explain it?
Inserting data into the middle of a text file is not a simple task. If possible, you should append it to the end of your file.
The easiest way to append data some text file is to use build-in fs.appendFile(filename, data[, options], callback)
function from fs
module:
var fs = require('fs')
fs.appendFile('log.txt', 'new data', function (err) {
if (err) {
// append failed
} else {
// done
}
})
But if you want to write data to log file several times, then it'll be best to use fs.createWriteStream(path[, options])
function instead:
var fs = require('fs')
var logger = fs.createWriteStream('log.txt', {
flags: 'a' // 'a' means appending (old data will be preserved)
})
logger.write('some data') // append string to your file
logger.write('more data') // again
logger.write('and more') // again
Node will keep appending new data to your file every time you'll call .write
, until your application will be closed, or until you'll manually close the stream calling .end
:
logger.end() // close string
Note that logger.write
in the above example does not write to a new line. To write data to a new line:
var writeLine = (line) => logger.write(`\n${line}`);
writeLine('Data written to a new line');