grunt.file

There are many provided methods for reading and writing files, traversing the filesystem and finding files by matching globbing patterns. Many of these methods are wrappers around built-in Node.js file functionality, but with additional error handling, logging and character encoding normalization.

Note: all file paths are relative to the Gruntfile unless the current working directory is changed with grunt.file.setBase or the --base command-line option.

Character encoding

grunt.file.defaultEncoding

Set this property to change the default encoding used by all grunt.file methods. Defaults to 'utf8'. If you do have to change this value, it's recommended that you change it as early as possible inside your Gruntfile.

grunt.file.defaultEncoding = 'utf8';

grunt.file.preserveBOM

Added in 0.4.2

Whether to preserve the Byte Order Mark (BOM) on file.read rather than strip it.

grunt.file.preserveBOM = false;

Reading and writing

grunt.file.read

Read and return a file's contents. Returns a string, unless options.encoding is null in which case it returns a Buffer.

grunt.file.read(filepath [, options])

The options object has these possible properties:

var options = {
  // If an encoding is not specified, default to grunt.file.defaultEncoding.
  // If specified as null, returns a non-decoded Buffer instead of a string.
  encoding: encodingName
};

grunt.file.readJSON

Read a file's contents, parsing the data as JSON and returning the result. See grunt.file.read for a list of supported options.

grunt.file.readJSON(filepath [, options])

grunt.file.readYAML

Read a file's contents, parsing the data as YAML and returning the result. See grunt.file.read for a list of supported options.

grunt.file.readYAML(filepath [, options])

grunt.file.write

Write the specified contents to a file, creating intermediate directories if necessary. Strings will be encoded using the specified character encoding, Buffers will be written to disk as-specified.

If the --no-write command-line option is specified, the file won't actually be written.

grunt.file.write(filepath, contents [, options])

The options object has these possible properties:

var options = {
  // If an encoding is not specified, default to grunt.file.defaultEncoding.
  // If `contents` is a Buffer, encoding is ignored.
  encoding: encodingName
};

grunt.file.copy

Copy a source file to a destination path, creating intermediate directories if necessary.

If the --no-write command-line option is specified, the file won't actually be written.

grunt.file.copy(srcpath, destpath [, options])

The options object has these possible properties:

var options = {
  // If an encoding is not specified, default to grunt.file.defaultEncoding.
  // If null, the `process` function will receive a Buffer instead of String.
  encoding: encodingName,
  // The source file contents, source file path, and destination file path
  // are passed into this function, whose return value will be used as the
  // destination file's contents. If this function returns `false`, the file
  // copy will be aborted.
  process: processFunction,
  // These optional globbing patterns will be matched against the filepath
  // (not the filename) using grunt.file.isMatch. If any specified globbing
  // pattern matches, the file won't be processed via the `process` function.
  // If `true` is specified, processing will be prevented.
  noProcess: globbingPatterns
};

grunt.file.delete

Delete the specified filepath. Will delete files and folders recursively.

Will not delete the current working directory or files outside the current working directory unless the --force command-line option is specified.

If the --no-write command-line option is specified, the filepath won't actually be deleted.

grunt.file.delete(filepath [, options])

The options object has one possible property:

var options = {
  // Enable deleting outside the current working directory. This option may
  // be overridden by the --force command-line option.
  force: true
};

Directories

grunt.file.mkdir

Works like mkdir -p. Create a directory along with any intermediate directories. If mode isn't specified, it defaults to 0777 & (~process.umask()).

If the --no-write command-line option is specified, directories won't actually be created.

grunt.file.mkdir(dirpath [, mode])

grunt.file.recurse

Recurse into a directory, executing callback for each file.

grunt.file.recurse(rootdir, callback)

The callback function receives the following arguments:

function callback(abspath, rootdir, subdir, filename) {
  // The full path to the current file, which is nothing more than
  // the rootdir + subdir + filename arguments, joined.
  abspath
  // The root director, as originally specified.
  rootdir
  // The current file's directory, relative to rootdir.
  subdir
  // The filename of the current file, without any directory parts.
  filename
}

Globbing patterns

It is often impractical to specify all source filepaths individually, so Grunt supports filename expansion (also know as globbing) via the built-in node-glob library.

See the "Globbing patterns" section of the Configuring tasks guide for globbing pattern examples.

grunt.file.expand

Return a unique array of all file or directory paths that match the given globbing pattern(s). This method accepts either comma separated globbing patterns or an array of globbing patterns. Paths matching patterns that begin with ! will be excluded from the returned array. Patterns are processed in order, so inclusion and exclusion order is significant.

grunt.file.expand([options, ] patterns)

File paths are relative to the Gruntfile unless the current working directory is changed with grunt.file.setBase or the --base command-line option.

The options object supports all minimatch library options, and a few others. For example:

  • filter Either a valid fs.Stats method name or a function that is passed the matched src filepath and returns true or false.
  • nonull Retain src patterns even if they fail to match files. Combined with grunt's --verbose flag, this option can help debug file path issues.
  • matchBase Patterns without slashes will match just the basename part. Eg. this makes *.js work like **/*.js.
  • cwd Patterns will be matched relative to this path, and all returned filepaths will also be relative to this path.

grunt.file.expandMapping

Returns an array of src-dest file mapping objects. For each source file matched by a specified pattern, join that file path to the specified dest. This file path may be flattened or renamed, depending on the options specified. See the grunt.file.expand method documentation for an explanation of how the patterns and options arguments may be specified.

grunt.file.expandMapping(patterns, dest [, options])

Note that while this method may be used to programmatically generate a files array for a multi task, the declarative syntax for doing this described in the "Building the files object dynamically" section of the Configuring tasks guide is preferred.

In addition to those the grunt.file.expand method supports, the options object also supports these properties:

var options = {
  // The directory from which patterns are matched. Any string specified as
  // cwd is effectively stripped from the beginning of all matched paths.
  cwd: String,
  // Remove the path component from all matched src files. The src file path
  // is still joined to the specified dest.
  flatten: Boolean,
  // Remove anything after (and including) either the first or last "." in the
  // destination path (indicated by options.extDot), then append this value.
  ext: String,
  // *Added in 0.4.3*
  // Indicates where the period demarcating the extension is located. Can take:
  // - 'first' (extension begins after the first period in the file name)
  // - 'last' (extension begins after the last period)
  // Default: 'first'
  extDot: String,
  // If specified, this function will be responsible for returning the final
  // dest filepath. By default, it joins dest and matchedSrcPath like so:
  rename: function(dest, matchedSrcPath, options) {
    return path.join(dest, matchedSrcPath);
  }
};

grunt.file.match

Match one or more globbing patterns against one or more file paths. Returns a uniqued array of all file paths that match any of the specified globbing patterns. Both the patterns and filepaths argument can be a single string or array of strings. Paths matching patterns that begin with ! will be excluded from the returned array. Patterns are processed in order, so inclusion and exclusion order is significant.

grunt.file.match([options, ] patterns, filepaths)

The options object supports all minimatch library options. For example, if options.matchBase is true, patterns without slashes will match against the basename of the path even if it contains slashes, eg. pattern *.js will match filepath path/to/file.js.

grunt.file.isMatch

This method contains the same signature and logic as the grunt.file.match method, but simply returns true if any files were matched, otherwise false.

File types

grunt.file.exists

Does the given path exist? Returns a boolean.

Like the Node.js path.join method, this method will join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

grunt.file.exists(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

grunt.file.isLink

Is the given path a symbolic link? Returns a boolean.

Like the Node.js path.join method, this method will join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

grunt.file.isLink(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

Returns false if the path doesn't exist.

grunt.file.isDir

Is the given path a directory? Returns a boolean.

Like the Node.js path.join method, this method will join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

grunt.file.isDir(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

Returns false if the path doesn't exist.

grunt.file.isFile

Is the given path a file? Returns a boolean.

Like the Node.js path.join method, this method will join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

grunt.file.isFile(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

Returns false if the path doesn't exist.

Paths

grunt.file.isPathAbsolute

Is a given file path absolute? Returns a boolean.

Like the Node.js path.join method, this method will join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

grunt.file.isPathAbsolute(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

grunt.file.arePathsEquivalent

Do all the specified paths refer to the same path? Returns a boolean.

grunt.file.arePathsEquivalent(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

grunt.file.doesPathContain

Are all descendant path(s) contained within the specified ancestor path? Returns a boolean.

Note: does not check to see if paths actually exist.

grunt.file.doesPathContain(ancestorPath, descendantPath1 [, descendantPath2 [, ...]])

grunt.file.isPathCwd

Is a given file path the CWD? Returns a boolean.

Like the Node.js path.join method, this method will join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

grunt.file.isPathCwd(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

grunt.file.isPathInCwd

Is a given file path inside the CWD? Note: CWD is not inside CWD. Returns a boolean.

Like the Node.js path.join method, this method will join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

grunt.file.isPathInCwd(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

grunt.file.setBase

Change grunt's current working directory (CWD). By default, all file paths are relative to the Gruntfile. This works just like the --base command-line option.

grunt.file.setBase(path1 [, path2 [, ...]])

Like the Node.js path.join method, this method will join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

External libraries

Deprecated

All external libraries that are listed below are now deprecated.

Please use npm to manage these external libraries in your project's dependencies.

For example if you want use Lo-Dash, install it first npm install lodash, then use it in your Gruntfile: var _ = require('lodash');

grunt.file.glob

Deprecated

glob - File globbing utility.

grunt.file.minimatch

Deprecated

minimatch - File pattern matching utility.

grunt.file.findup

Deprecated

findup-sync - Search upwards for matching file patterns.

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