How do I move file a to a different partition or device in Node.js?

Question

How do I move file a to a different partition or device in Node.js?

I'm trying to move a file from one partition to another in a Node.js script. When I used fs.renameSync I received Error: EXDEV, Cross-device link. I'd copy it over and delete the original, but I don't see a command to copy files either. How can this be done?

javascript
node.js
rename

Answer 1

You need to copy and unlink when moving files across different partitions. Try this,

var fs = require('fs');
//var util = require('util');

var is = fs.createReadStream('source_file');
var os = fs.createWriteStream('destination_file');

is.pipe(os);
is.on('end',function() {
    fs.unlinkSync('source_file');
});

/* node.js 0.6 and earlier you can use util.pump:
util.pump(is, os, function() {
    fs.unlinkSync('source_file');
});
*/

Answer 2

I know this is already answered, but I ran across a similar problem and ended up with something along the lines of:

require('child_process').spawn('cp', ['-r', source, destination])

What this does is call the command cp ("copy"). Since we're stepping outside of Node.js, this command needs to be supported by your system.

I know it's not the most elegant, but it did what I needed :)

Answer 3

One more solution to the problem.

There's a package called fs.extra written by "coolaj86" on npm.

You use it like so: npm install fs.extra

fs = require ('fs.extra');
fs.move ('foo.txt', 'bar.txt', function (err) {
    if (err) { throw err; }
    console.log ("Moved 'foo.txt' to 'bar.txt'");
});

I've read the source code for this thing. It attempts to do a standard fs.rename() then, if it fails, it does a copy and deletes the original using the same util.pump() that @chandru uses.

Answer 4

to import the module and save it to your package.json file

npm install mv --save

then use it like so:

var mv = require('mv');
  .
  .
mv('source_file', 'destination_file,' function(err) {
  if (err) { throw err; }
  console.log('file moved successfully');
};