vfile is a small and browser friendly virtual file format that tracks
metadata about files (such as its path
and value
) and lint messages.
Contents
- unified
- What is this?
- When should I use this?
- Install
- Use
-
API
VFile(options?)
file.value
file.cwd
file.path
file.dirname
file.basename
file.extname
file.stem
file.history
file.messages
file.data
VFile#toString(encoding?)
VFile#message(reason[, position][, origin])
VFile#info(reason[, position][, origin])
VFile#fail(reason[, position][, origin])
- Well-known fields
- List of utilities
- Reporters
- Types
- Compatibility
- Contribute
- Sponsor
- Acknowledgments
- License
unified
vfile is part of the unified collective.
- for more about us, see
unifiedjs.com
- for how the collective is governed, see
unifiedjs/collective
- for updates, see @unifiedjs on Twitter
What is this?
This package provides a virtual file format. It exposes an API to access the file value, path, metadata about the file, and specifically supports attaching lint messages and errors to certain places in these files.
When should I use this?
The virtual file format is useful when dealing with the concept of files in places where you might not be able to access the file system. The message API is particularly useful when making things that check files (as in, linting).
vfile is made for unified, which amongst other things checks files. However, vfile can be used in other projects that deal with parsing, transforming, and serializing data, to build linters, compilers, static site generators, and other build tools.
This is different from the excellent vinyl
in that vfile has a
smaller API, a smaller size, and focuses on messages.
Install
This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 12.20+, 14.14, 16.0+), install with npm:
npm install vfile
In Deno with esm.sh
:
import {VFile} from 'https://esm.sh/vfile@5'
In browsers with esm.sh
:
<script type="module">
import {VFile} from 'https://esm.sh/vfile@5?bundle'
</script>
Use
import {VFile} from 'vfile'
const file = new VFile({
path: '~/example.txt',
value: 'Alpha *braavo* charlie.'
})
console.log(file.path) // => '~/example.txt'
console.log(file.dirname) // => '~'
file.extname = '.md'
console.log(file.basename) // => 'example.md'
file.basename = 'index.text'
console.log(file.history) // => ['~/example.txt', '~/example.md', '~/index.text']
file.message('Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?', {
line: 1,
column: 8
})
console.log(file.messages)
Yields:
[
[~/index.text:1:8: Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?] {
reason: 'Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?',
line: 1,
column: 8,
source: null,
ruleId: null,
position: {start: [Object], end: [Object]},
file: '~/index.text',
fatal: false
}
]
API
This package exports the identifier VFile
.
There is no default export.
VFile(options?)
Create a new virtual file.
- if
options
isstring
orBuffer
, it’s treated as{value: options}
- if
options
is aURL
, it’s treated as{path: options}
- if
options
is aVFile
, shallow copies its data over to the new file
All fields in options
are set on the newly created VFile
.
Path related fields are set in the following order (least specific to most
specific): history
, path
, basename
, stem
, extname
, dirname
.
It’s not possible to set either dirname
or extname
without setting either
history
, path
, basename
, or stem
as well.
Example
new VFile()
new VFile('console.log("alpha");')
new VFile(Buffer.from('exit 1'))
new VFile({path: path.join('path', 'to', 'readme.md')})
new VFile({stem: 'readme', extname: '.md', dirname: path.join('path', 'to')})
new VFile({other: 'properties', are: 'copied', ov: {e: 'r'}})
file.value
Raw value (Buffer
, string
, null
).
file.cwd
Base of path
(string
, default: process.cwd()
or '/'
in browsers).
file.path
Get or set the full path (string?
, example: '~/index.min.js'
).
Cannot be nullified.
You can set a file URL (a URL
object with a file:
protocol) which will be
turned into a path with url.fileURLToPath
.
file.dirname
Get or set the parent path (string?
, example: '~'
).
Cannot be set if there’s no path
yet.
file.basename
Get or set the basename (including extname) (string?
, example: 'index.min.js'
).
Cannot contain path separators ('/'
on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\'
on
windows).
Cannot be nullified (use file.path = file.dirname
instead).
file.extname
Get or set the extname (including dot) (string?
, example: '.js'
).
Cannot contain path separators ('/'
on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\'
on
windows).
Cannot be set if there’s no path
yet.
file.stem
Get or set the stem (basename w/o extname) (string?
, example: 'index.min'
).
Cannot contain path separators ('/'
on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\'
on
windows).
Cannot be nullified.
file.history
List of filepaths the file moved between (Array<string>
).
The first is the original path and the last is the current path.
file.messages
List of messages associated with the file (Array<VFileMessage>
).
file.data
Place to store custom information (Record<string, unknown>
, default: {}
).
It’s OK to store custom data directly on the file but moving it to data
is
recommended.
VFile#toString(encoding?)
Serialize the file.
When value
is a Buffer
, encoding
is a
character encoding to understand it as (string
, default:
'utf8'
).
Returns
Serialized file (string
).
VFile#message(reason[, position][, origin])
Constructs a new VFileMessage
, where fatal
is set to false
,
and associates it with the file by adding it to file.messages
and setting message.file
to the current filepath.
Parameters
-
reason
(string
orError
) — human readable reason for the message, uses the stack and message of the error if given -
place
(Node
,Position
, orPoint
, optional) — place where the message occurred in the file -
origin
(string?
, optional, example:'my-npm-package:my-rule-name'
) — computer readable reason for the message
Returns
Message (VFileMessage
).
VFile#info(reason[, position][, origin])
Like VFile#message()
, but associates an informational message
where fatal
is set to null
.
Returns
Message (VFileMessage
).
VFile#fail(reason[, position][, origin])
Like VFile#message()
, but associates a fatal message where fatal
is set to true
, and then immediately throws it.
👉 Note: a fatal error means that a file is no longer processable.
Throws
Message (VFileMessage
).
Well-known fields
The following fields are considered “non-standard”, but they are allowed, and some utilities use them:
-
stored
(boolean
) — whether a file was saved to disk, used by reporters -
result
(unknown
) — sometimes files have a non-string, compiled, representation, which can be stored in theresult
field. One example is when turning markdown into React nodes. unified uses this field to store non-string results -
map
(Map
) — sometimes files have a source map associated with them, this should be aMap
type, which is equivalent to theRawSourceMap
type from thesource-map
module
There are also well-known fields on messages, see
them in a similar section of
vfile-message
.
List of utilities
-
convert-vinyl-to-vfile
— transform from Vinyl -
to-vfile
— create a file from a filepath and read and write to the file system -
vfile-find-down
— find files by searching the file system downwards -
vfile-find-up
— find files by searching the file system upwards -
vfile-glob
— find files by glob patterns -
vfile-is
— check if a file passes a test -
vfile-location
— convert between positional and offset locations -
vfile-matter
— parse the YAML front matter -
vfile-message
— create a file message -
vfile-messages-to-vscode-diagnostics
— transform file messages to VS Code diagnostics -
vfile-mkdirp
— make sure the directory of a file exists on the file system -
vfile-rename
— rename the path parts of a file -
vfile-sort
— sort messages by line/column -
vfile-statistics
— count messages per category: failures, warnings, etc -
vfile-to-eslint
— convert to ESLint formatter compatible output
👉 Note: see unist for projects that work with nodes.
Reporters
-
vfile-reporter
— create a report -
vfile-reporter-json
— create a JSON report -
vfile-reporter-folder-json
— create a JSON representation of vfiles -
vfile-reporter-pretty
— create a pretty report -
vfile-reporter-junit
— create a jUnit report -
vfile-reporter-position
— create a report with content excerpts
👉 Note: want to make your own reporter? Reporters must acceptArray<VFile>
as their first argument, and returnstring
. Reporters may accept other values too, in which case it’s suggested to stick tovfile-reporter
s interface.
Types
This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports the following additional types:
-
BufferEncoding
— thing that can be given asx
infile.toString(x)
-
Compatible
— everything that can be passed asx
innew VFile(x)
-
Data
— thing atfile.data
-
DataMap
— interface you can add things to, to type your extensions offile.data
-
Map
— source map interface as supported atfile.map
-
Options
— the fields that can be passed as options tonew VFile(x)
-
Reporter
— a reporter -
ReporterSettings
— the fields that can be passed to a reporter -
Value
— valid value -
VFile
— class offile
itself
DataMap
can be augmented to include your extensions to it:
declare module 'vfile' {
interface DataMap {
// `file.data.name` is typed as `string`.
name: string
}
}
Compatibility
Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with all maintained versions of Node.js. As of now, that is Node.js 12.20+, 14.14+, and 16.0+. Our projects sometimes work with older versions, but this is not guaranteed.
Contribute
See contributing.md
in vfile/.github
for ways to
get started.
See support.md
for ways to get help.
This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.
Sponsor
Support this effort and give back by sponsoring on OpenCollective!
Vercel |
Motif |
HashiCorp |
GitBook |
Gatsby |
|||||
Netlify |
Coinbase |
ThemeIsle |
Expo |
Boost Note |
Holloway |
||||
You? |
Acknowledgments
The initial release of this project was authored by @wooorm.
Thanks to @contra, @phated, and others for their work on Vinyl, which was a huge inspiration.
Thanks to @brendo, @shinnn, @KyleAMathews, @sindresorhus, and @denysdovhan for contributing commits since!