No errors - still no write

Getting node.js and gridfs to play nice is not easy. Of all the things I tried, I settled on this being as close as I could get with limited knowledge and what I understand the current supported functions will allow.

(below in coffee, use http://js2coffee.org/ to get to the js and vice versa)

util = require("util")
mongodb = require("mongodb")
GridStore = mongodb.GridStore
parse = (options) ->
  opts = {}
  opts = options[0]  if options.length > 0
  opts.metadata = {}  unless opts.metadata
  opts

db = new Db("local", new Server("127.0.0.1", 27017,
  auto_reconnect: false
  poolSize: 1
),
  native_parser: false
)
db.open()
putFile = (path, name, options, fn) ->
  options = parse(options)
  options.metadata.filename = name
  new GridStore(db, name, "w", options).open (err, file) ->
    return fn(err)  if err
    file.writeFile path, (err, fn) ->
      file.close()

opts = content_type: "plain/text"
myfileupload = putFile("myfile.txt", "known_hosts", opts)
db.close()

Strangely however, using apt-get install mongodb-10gen on Ubuntu 11.10, my file is not saved. And there are no error messages to help me understand why.

I am close to believing that everything I read about gridfs and nodejs is all just a cruel joke, and I am never going to see this work. Please help.