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  3. Node.js — Check if a Path is a SymLink (Symbolic Link)

Node.js — Check if a Path is a SymLink (Symbolic Link)

You’re probably using Node.js’ integrated fs core module to interact with the local hard disk. The fs module provides lots of useful low-level methods to interact with files and directories of any kind.

This tutorial shows you how to detect whether a given path on the file system points to a symbolic link. We’re creating a handy isSymlink(path) helper method which you could use in your project.

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Node.js’ built-in fs core module comes with all the needed functionality to detect whether a given file path resolves to a symbolic link. First, you need to retrieve the Stats instance of the path. From there, you can use the stats.isSymbolicLink() method to detect the actual file type.

Here’s a utility method you could use in your project to detect a symlink:

import { stat } from 'node:fs/promises'

/**
 * Determine whether the given `path` points to a symbolic link.
 *
 * @param {String} path
 *
 * @returns {Boolean}
 */
async function isSymlink(path) {  
  const stats = await Fs.stat(path)

  return stats.isSymbolicLink()
}

await isSymbolicLink('/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/futurestud.io.conf')  
// true

await isSymbolicLink('./node_modules')  
// false

You might be interested in related tutorials here on Future Studio related to path’s and their resolving file types:
- detect whether a path is a file - detect whether a path is a directory

Use the @supercharge/fs Package

I’m the maintainer of the @supercharge/fs package providing convenient file system utilities. This package comes with a handy isSymLink(path) method determining whether the given path points to a symbolic link on your local hard disk:

import Fs from '@supercharge/fs'

await Fs.isSymLink('/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/futurestud.io.conf')  
// true

await Fs.isSymLink('./node_modules')  
// false

Enjoy!

Mentioned Resources

Marcus Pöhls

Marcus is a fullstack JS developer. He’s passionate about the hapi framework for Node.js and loves to build web apps and APIs. Creator of Futureflix and the “learn hapi” learning path.

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