OS.File for Workers

This page details how to use File I/O from a privileged JavaScript worker thread. For other uses of OS.File, please see the corresponding page.

Using OS.File for Workers

To import OS.File in a chrome worker thread, add the following line at the start of your script:

importScripts("resource://gre/modules/osfile.jsm")

Example: Reading the contents of a file as text

The following snippet opens a file "file.txt" and read its contents as a string, using the default encoding (utf-8).

let decoder = new TextDecoder();      // This decoder can be reused for several reads
let array = OS.File.read("file.txt"); // Read the complete file as an array
let text = decoder.decode(array);     // Convert this array to a text

This example requires Firefox 19 or a more recent version.

Example: Write a string to a file

The following snippet writes a text "This is some text" to a string "file.txt", using the default encoding (utf-8). It uses an atomic write to ensure that the file is not modified if, for some reason, the write cannot complete (typically because the computer is turned off, the battery runs out or the application is stopped).

let encoder = new TextEncoder();                                   // This encoder can be reused for several writes
let array = encoder.encode("This is some text");                   // Convert the text to an array
OS.File.writeAtomic("file.txt", array, {tmpPath: "file.txt.tmp"}); // Write the array atomically to "file.txt", using as temporary
                                                                   // buffer "file.txt.tmp".

The following variant does the same thing but will fail if "file.txt" already exists (notice that noOverwrite is set to true):

let encoder = new TextEncoder();                                   // This encoder can be reused for several writes
let array = encoder.encode("This is some text");                   // Convert the text to an array
OS.File.writeAtomic("file.txt", array, {tmpPath: "file.txt.tmp",   // Write the array atomically to "file.txt", using as temporary
                                        noOverwrite: true});       // buffer "file.txt.tmp".

This examples require Firefox 19 or a more recent version.

Example: Rename a file

The following snippet renames file "oldname.txt" to "newname.txt". Note that this is generally much faster than copying "oldname.txt" to "newname.txt" and then removing "oldname.txt".

OS.File.rename("oldname.txt", "newname.txt");

This example requires Firefox 16 or a more recent version.

Example: Copy a file

The following snippet copies file "oldname.txt" to "newname.txt". On most operating systems, this operation is handled directly by the operating system itself, which makes it as fast as possible.

OS.File.copy("oldname.txt", "newname.txt");

This example requires Firefox 16 or a more recent version.

Example: Path manipulation

The following snippet obtains the path to file "sessionstore.js", contained in the user's profile directory.

let sessionstore = OS.Path.join(OS.Constants.Path.profileDir, "sessionstore.js");
   // Under Linux, this is generally "$HOME/.firefox/Profiles/$PROFILENAME/sessionstore.js"
   // Under MacOS, this is generally "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Firefox/$PROFILENAME/sessionstore.js"
   // Under Windows Vista and later, this is generally "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\%PROFILENAME%"
   // etc.

Example: Determine if a file is a directory

The following snippet determines if some path represents a file or a directory. The variable "somePath" holds the path of the file. The code checks if it's a directory or not using "isDir". It also fails safely in case the file doesn't exist:

try {
   let stat = OS.File.stat(somePath);
   if (stat.isDir) {
      // The path represents a directory
   } else {
      // The path represents a file, not a directory
   }
} catch (ex) {
   if (ex instanceof OS.File.Error && ex.becauseNoSuchFile) {
      // The file does not exist
   } else {
     throw ex; // Other error
   }
}

Global object OS.File

Method overview

File open(in string path, [optional] in object mode, [optional] in object options);

object openUnique(in string path, [optional] in object options); Requires Gecko 27.0

void copy(in string sourcePath, in string destPath, [optional] in object options);

bool exists(in string path);

string getCurrentDirectory();

void makeDir(in string path, [optional] in object options);

void move(in string sourcePath, in string destPath);

Uint8Array read(in string path, [optional] in object options);

void remove(in string path);

void removeEmptyDir(in string path);

void removeDir(in string path, [optional] in object options); Requires Gecko 27.0

void setCurrentDirectory(in string path);

void setDates(in string path, in Date|number accessDate, in Date|number modificationDate);

File.Info stat(in string path, [optional] in object options);

void writeAtomic(in string path, in ArrayView data, in object options);

Methods

OS.File.open()

Use method OS.File.open() to open a file.

File open(
  in string path,
  [optional] in object mode,
  [optional] in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path

The full native name of the file to open.

mode Optional

The opening mode for the file, as an object that may contain a subset of the following fields:

read: If true, the file will be opened for reading. Depending on other fields, it may also be opened for writing.
write: If true, the file will be opened for writing. Depending on other fields, it may also be opened for reading.
Prior to Gecko 27, unless create or truncate are set or explicit unixFlags are given, the file will be opened for appending on Unix/Linux. However, the file is not opened for appending on Windows at the time of writing. See bug 924858. Starting with Gecko 27, you may use the append flag instead.
trunc | truncate: If true, the file will be opened for writing. If the file does not exist, it will be created. If the file exists, its contents will be removed. Cannot be used with create.
create: If true, file will be opened for writing. The file must not exist. If the file already exists, an error is thrown. Cannot be used with truncate or existing.
existing: If true, the file must already exist. If the file does not exist, an error is thrown. Cannot be used with create.
append Requires Gecko 27: If true, the file will be opened for appending, meaning the equivalent of .setPosition(0, POS_END) is executed before each write. The default is true, i.e. opening a file for appending. Specify append: false to open the file in regular mode.

options Optional

Platform-specific options for opening the file. For advanced users only. Most users will never have need for these options. To specify options, pass an object that may contain some of the following flags:

unixFlags: (ignored under non-Unix platforms) If specified, file opening flags, as per libc function open. If unspecified, build these flags from the contents of mode. You can build these flags from values OS.Constants.libc.O_*.
unixMode: (ignored under non-Unix platforms) If specified, file creation mode, as per libc function open. If unspecified, files are created with a default mode of 0600 (file is private to the user, the user can read and write). You can build this mode from values OS.Constants.libc.S_I*.
winShare: (ignored under non-Windows platforms) If specified, a sharing policy (how access to file is shared among different processes), as per Windows function CreateFile. If unspecified, files are opened with a default sharing policy (file is not protected against being read/written/removed by another process or another use in the same process). You can build this policy from constants OS.Constants.Win.FILE_SHARE_*.
winSecurity: (ignored under non-Windows platforms) If specified, a security policy, as per Windows function CreateFile. If unspecified, no security attributes.
winAccess: (ignored under non-Windows platforms) If specified, access mode (read, write, both or neither), as per Windows function CreateFile. This also requires option winDisposition and this replaces argument mode. If unspecified, value is built from mode.
winDisposition: (ignored under non-Windows platforms) If specified, disposition mode, as per Windows function CreateFile. This also requires option winAccess and this replaces argument mode. If unspecified, value is built from mode.

Returns

An instance of OS.File representing the expected file.

Note that the operating system limits the number of files that can be opened simultaneously by one process, so do not forget to close that file once you have finished it, to ensure that you are not blocking the rest of the process.

The runtime will also do its best to eventually close files that are not used, but you should not rely upon this, as it can depend on many factors that you cannot control.

When opening files for writing, they will be opened for appending unless you specify append: false in Gecko 27 and later. In Gecko 26 and ealier, on platforms other than Windows, the files will be opened for appending unless you specify explicit unixFlags or open the file with either create or truncate flags. In Gecko 26 and ealier on Windows, files will never be opened for appending.

To open an existing file for writing without appending in a compatible way on all platforms in both, Gecko 27 and later and Gecko 26 and earlier, you should specify both, the append flag and unixFlags.

// Open a file for writing without appending to it.

// Under Unix, you'll have to specify your own unixFlags for Gecko < 27 to avoid append mode.
var options = {};
if (OS.Constants.libc) {
  // Own flags omitting O_APPEND, e.g.
  options.unixFlags = OS.Constants.libc.O_CREAT | OS.Constants.libc.O_WRONLY;
}
// For Gecko >= 27, it is enough, but crucial, to set the correct append flag.
var outfile = OS.File.open("file.tmp", {write: true, append: false}, options);
try {
  // ... do something with that file
} finally {
  outfile.close();
}

Examples

Open a file for reading

var file = OS.File.open("/etc/password"); // Open a file for reading
try {
   // ... do something with that file
} finally {
   file.close();
}

Open a file with Unix-specific options

// Prepare opening options: under Unix, the user can only read and modify the file.
var options = {
  unixMode: OS.Constants.S_IRUSR | OS.Constants.S_IWUSR
};
var outfile = OS.File.open("file.tmp", {create: true}, options); // Open a file for writing. If the file already exists, fail.
try {
  // ... do something with that file
} finally {
  outfile.close();
}

OS.File.openUnique()

Requires Gecko 27.0

Creates and opens a file with a unique name. By default, generate a random HEX number and use it to create a unique new file name.

object openUnique(
  in string path,
  [optional] in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path

The full native name of the file to open.

options Optional

Additional options for file opening. This implementation interprets the following fields:

humanReadable: If true, create a new filename appending a decimal number. ie: filename-1.ext, filename-2.ext. If false use HEX numbers ie: filename-A65BC0.ext
maxAttempts: Used to limit the amount of tries after a failed file creation. Default is 99.

Returns

An object contains A file object{file} and the path{path}.

Throws

OS.File.Error: If the file could not be opened.

OS.File.copy()

Copy a file.

void copy(
  in string sourcePath,
  in string destPath
  [optional] in object options)
throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

sourcePath: The full path of the file to copy. At the time of this writing, this function does not copy directories.
destPath: The full path of the destination. Note that this is not a directory but a file.
options Optional: An optional object used to control the behavior of this function. You may pass an object with a subset of the following fields:
noOverwrite: If destPath already exists, do not overwrite it, but rather throw an exception.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the file does not exist.

Performance notes

To avoid erasing the destination file, it is much faster to use option noOverwrite than to check manually whether the file exists.
This operation is OS-optimized under MacOS X (native operation copyfile), Linux/Android (native operation splice) and Windows (native operation CopyFile).

OS.File.exists()

Determine whether a file exists.

bool exists(
  in string path
)

Arguments

path: The name of the file.

Returns

true if the file exists, false otherwise.

Performance note: For the sake of performance, you should avoid this function whenever possible. For instance, rather than calling exists() to determine if a directory should be created with makeDir, you should rather create the directory with makeDir and catch the error if the directory exists. This will ensure that you only need to perform one I/O operation rather than two.

OS.File.getCurrentDirectory()

Return the current directory.

string getCurrentDirectory()

Returns

The path to the current directory.

OS.File.makeDir()

Create a new directory

void makeDir(
  in string path,
  [optional] in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path: The full name of the directory to create.
options Optional: Platform-specific options for creating the directory. For advanced users only. Most users will never have need for these options. To specify options, pass an object that may contain some of the following flags:
unixMode: (ignored under non-Unix platforms) If specified, file creation mode, as per libc function mkdir. If unspecified, directories are created with a default mode of 0600 (file is private to the user, the user can read and write). You can build this mode from values OS.Constants.libc.S_I*.
winSecurity: (ignored under non-Windows platforms) If specified, a security policy, as per Windows function CreateDirectory. If unspecified, no security attributes.

OS.File.move()

Move a file.

move(
  in string sourcePath,
  in string destPath
  [optional] in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

sourcePath

The full path of the file to move. At the time of this writing, the behavior of this function is unspecified if sourcePath is a directory.

destPath

The full path of the destination. At the time of this writing, the behavior of this function is unspecified if destPath is a directory.

options Optional

An optional object used to control the behavior of this function. You may pass an object with a subset of the following fields:

noOverwrite: If destPath already exists, do not overwrite it, but rather throw an exception.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the file does not exist.

Performance note: This operation is OS-optimized under MacOS X, Linux/Android and Windows.

OS.File.read()

Read the contents of a file

Uint8Array read(
  in string path,
  [optional] in number bytes
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path: The full path to the file to read.
bytes Optional: The number of bytes to read. If unspecified, read the file to the end.

Returns

An array holding the bytes bytes (or less if the file did not contain as many bytes).

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the file does not exist or if the process does not have the authorization to read it.

OS.File.remove()

Remove an existing file.

void remove(
  in string path
  [optional] in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path: The full name of the file to remove. At the time of this writing, this function does not remove directories.
options: Ignored for the moment.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the file does not exist.

OS.File.removeEmptyDir()

Remove an empty directory.

void removeEmptyDir(
  in string path
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path: The full path to the empty directory.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the directory does not exist.

OS.File.removeDir()

Requires Gecko 27

Remove an existing directory and its contents.

void removeDir(
  in string path
  [optional] in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path: A string representing the name of the file to remove. At the time of this writing, this function does not remove directories.
options: An object that may contain the following fields
ignoreAbsent: If false, this function will throw an error if the directory doesn't exist.
ignorePermissions: If true, this function will remove the directory even when lacking write permissions.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if path isn't a directory.

OS.File.setCurrentDirectory()

Change the current directory of the process.

Use with extreme caution: This API may be useful for application developers but should be avoided by add-ons, as it changes the state of the complete application.

void setCurrentDirectory(
  in string path
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path: The full path to use as current directory.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the path to the directory does not exist.

OS.File.setDates()

Set the last access and modification date of the file.

The time stamp resolution is 1 second at best, but might be worse depending on the platform, file system, etc.

void setDates(
  in string path,
  in Date|number accessDate,
  in Date|number modificationDate
)

Arguments

path: The complete path to the file.
accessDate: The last access date. If numeric, milliseconds since epoch. If omitted or null, the current date will be used.
modificationDate: The last modification date. If numeric, milliseconds since epoch. If omitted or null, the current date will be used.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the path does not represent an existing file.

OS.File.stat()

Obtain information about a file, such as size, creation date, etc.

File.Info stat(
  in string path
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path: The full path to the file.

Returns

An instance of File.Info holding information about a file.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the path to the file does not exist.

Performance note: If the file is already opened, calling method stat() is much faster than calling function OS.File.stat().

OS.File.writeAtomic()

Write data to a file. Data is first written to a temporary file, then flushed, then the temporary file is used to overwrite the destination file. This makes it extremely unlikely that the destination file can be corrupted during the call to this function by battery failure, the process being stopped or any other such incident. Note that it is generally not possible to provide a 100% guarantee of such properties.

void writeAtomic(
  in string path,
  in ArrayBufferView data,
  in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

path: The full path to the destination file.
data: An ArrayBufferView holding the data to write.
options: An object that may contain the following fields:
tmpPath: The full path to a file that may be used as a temporary buffer. This file must be on the same device as path. In case of doubt, path + ".tmp" is generally a good value for tmpPath.
noOverwrite: If specified and true, and if path already exists, this function will throw an error without overwriting path.

At the time of this writing, option tmpPath is required. Future versions will ensure that the function may work even without this argument.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the destination file cannot be overwritten, or if tmpPath is not on the same device as path.

Instances of OS.File

To obtain an instance of OS.File, use function OS.File.open.

Methods overview

void close()

void flush()

number getPosition()

number read([optional] in number bytes)

number readTo(out ArrayBufferView dest, [optional] in object options)

void setDates(in Date|number accessDate, in Date|number modificationDate);

void setPosition(in number bytes)

File.Info stat()

number write(in ArrayBufferView source, [optional] in object options)

Attributes

fd (platform-specific) (read-only) For advanced users only. A low-level opaque data structure holding the system handle for the file. Under Windows, this is a file HANDLE and under Unix, this is a file descriptor. Use this with the Platform-Specific Low-Level API.

Methods

close()

Close a file and release any associated resource.

Once the file is closed, any attempt to call methods of the file object will raise an error.

Note that the operating system limits the number of files that can be opened simultaneously by one process, so do not forget to close that file once you have finished it to make sure that you are not blocking the rest of the process.

void close() throws OS.File.Error

flush()

Flushes the file's internal buffers, ensuring that all data still in these buffers is now written to disk.

Disk flushes are very expensive and therefore should be used carefully, sparingly and only in scenarios where it is vital that data survives system crashes. Even though the function will be executed off the main-thread, it might still affect the overall performance of any running application.

void flush() throws OS.File.Error

getPosition()

Return the current position in the file.

number getPosition() throws OS.File.Error

Returns

The current position in the file, as a number of bytes from the start.

Throws

OS.File.Error: If the file is closed.

read()

Read bytes from this file to a new buffer. Bytes are read from the current position in the file and the position is advanced accordingly.

UInt8Array read(
  [optional] in number bytes
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

bytes Optional: If specified, read bytes bytes, or less if the file does not contain that many bytes. If unspecified, read all the remaining bytes from this file.

Returns

An array containing the bytes read.

If you need to convert the result of this function to a string, you may do so through by using the StringEncoding API.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of I/O error.

readTo()

Read bytes from the file to an existing array. Bytes are read from the current position in the file and the position is advanced accordingly.

number readTo(
  out ArrayBufferView dest,
  [optional] in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

dest: The buffer in which to store the bytes.
options Optional: An object that may contain some of the following fields:
bytes: An upper bound to the number of bytes to read from the file. If unspecified, read up to dest.byteLength bytes. If specified, this must be less than dest.byteLength.

Returns

The number of bytes effectively read from the file.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any I/O error.
TypeError: If options.bytes is specified and is larger than dest.byteLength.

setDates()

Set the last access and modification date of the file.

The time stamp resolution is 1 second at best, but might be worse depending on the platform, file system, etc.

void setDates(
  in Date|number accessDate,
  in Date|number modificationDate
)

Arguments

accessDate: The last access date. If numeric, milliseconds since epoch. If omitted or null, the current date will be used.
modificationDate: The last modification date. If numeric, milliseconds since epoch. If omitted or null, the current date will be used.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the path does not represent an existing file.

setPosition()

Change the current position in the file.

void setPosition(
  in number offset,
  in object origin
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

offset

The new position, as a number of bytes from the origin.

origin

One of the following:

OS.File.POS_START (bytes are counted from the start of the file);
OS.File.POS_CUR (bytes are counted from the current position in the file);
OS.File.POS_END (bytes are counted from the end of the file).

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the new position is before the start of the file, or if the file is closed.

stat()

Obtain information about the file, such as size, creation date, etc.

File.Info stat() throws OS.File.Error

Returns

An instance of File.Info holding information about the file.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any error, in particular if the file is closed.

write()

Write bytes from a buffer to this file.

Note that, by default, this function may perform several I/O operations to ensure that the buffer is fully written.

number write(
  in ArrayBufferView source
  [optional] in object options
) throws OS.File.Error

Arguments

source: The array in which the the bytes are stored.
options Optional: An object that may contain some of the following fields:
bytes: An upper bound to the number of bytes to write to the file. If unspecified, write up to source.byteLength bytes. If specified, this must be less than source.byteLength.

Returns

The number of bytes effectively written to the file.

Throws

OS.File.Error: In case of any I/O error.
TypeError: If options.bytes is specified and is larger than source.byteLength.