How to capture no file for fs.readFileSync()?

Within node.js readFile() shows how to capture an error, however there is no comment for the readFileSync() function regarding error handling. As such, if I try to use readFileSync() when there is no file, I get the error Error: ENOENT, no such file or directory.

How do I capture the exception being thrown? The doco doesn't state what exceptions are thrown, so I don't know what exceptions I need to catch. I should note that I don't like generic 'catch every single possible exception' style of try/catch statements. In this case I wish to catch the specific exception that occurs when the file doesn't exist and I attempt to perform the readFileSync.

Please note that I'm performing sync functions only on start up before serving connection attempts, so comments that I shouldn't be using sync functions are not required :-)

Basically, fs.readFileSync throws an error when a file is not found. This error is from the Error prototype and thrown using throw, hence the only way to catch is with a try / catch block:

var fileContents;
try {
  fileContents = fs.readFileSync('foo.bar');
} catch (err) {
  // Here you get the error when the file was not found,
  // but you also get any other error
}

Unfortunately you can not detect which error has been thrown just by looking at its prototype chain:

if (err instanceof Error)

is the best you can do, and this will be true for most (if not all) errors. Hence I'd suggest you go with the code property and check its value:

if (err.code === 'ENOENT') {
  console.log('File not found!');
} else {
  throw err;
}

This way, you deal only with this specific error and re-throw all other errors.

Alternatively, you can also access the error's message property to verify the detailed error message, which in this case is:

ENOENT, no such file or directory 'foo.bar'

Hope this helps.

I prefer this way of handling this. You can check if the file exists synchronously:

var file = 'info.json';
var content = '';

// Check that the file exists locally
if(!fs.existsSync(file)) {
  console.log("File not found");
}

// The file *does* exist
else {
  // Read the file and do anything you want
  content = fs.readFileSync(file, 'utf-8');
}

> Note: if your program also deletes files, this has a race condition as noted in the comments. If however you only write or overwrite files, without deleting them, then this is totally fine.

You have to catch the error and then check what type of error it is.

try {
  var data = fs.readFileSync(...)
} catch (err) {
  // If the type is not what you want, then just throw the error again.
  if (err.code !== 'ENOENT') throw err;

  // Handle a file-not-found error
}

I use an immediately invoked lambda for these scenarios:

const config = (() => {
  try {
    return JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('config.json'));
  } catch (error) {
    return {};
  }
})();

async version:

const config = await (async () => {
  try {
    return JSON.parse(await fs.readFileAsync('config.json'));
  } catch (error) {
    return {};
  }
})();

The JavaScript try…catch mechanism cannot be used to intercept errors generated by asynchronous APIs. A common mistake for beginners is to try to use throw inside an error-first callback:

// THIS WILL NOT WORK:
const fs = require('fs');

try {
  fs.readFile('/some/file/that/does-not-exist', (err, data) => {
    // Mistaken assumption: throwing here...
    if (err) {
      throw err;
    }
  });
} catch (err) {
  // This will not catch the throw!
  console.error(err);
}

This will not work because the callback function passed to fs.readFile() is called asynchronously. By the time the callback has been called, the surrounding code, including the try…catch block, will have already exited. Throwing an error inside the callback can crash the Node.js process in most cases. If domains are enabled, or a handler has been registered with process.on('uncaughtException'), such errors can be intercepted.

reference: https://nodejs.org/api/errors.html

Try using Async instead to avoid blocking the only thread you have with NodeJS. Check this example:

const util = require('util');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const readFileAsync = util.promisify(fs.readFile);

const readContentFile = async (filePath) => {
  // Eureka, you are using good code practices here!
  const content = await readFileAsync(path.join(__dirname, filePath), {
    encoding: 'utf8'
  })
  return content;
}

Later can use this async function with try/catch from any other function:

const anyOtherFun = async () => {
  try {
    const fileContent = await readContentFile('my-file.txt');
  } catch (err) {
    // Here you get the error when the file was not found,
    // but you also get any other error
  }
}

Happy Coding!