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  3. Node.js — Handling `fs.Stats` Constructor is Deprecated

Node.js — Handling `fs.Stats` Constructor is Deprecated

You may notice a deprecation warning in your terminal that the fs.Stats constructor is deprecated. Node.js deprecated the public fs.Stats constructor in version 22.0.0:

(node:17560) [DEP0180] DeprecationWarning: fs.Stats constructor is deprecated.
(Use `node --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)

This tutorial shows you how to handle the deprecation in your project.

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Don’t use new Stats() in Node.js 22+

Starting from Node.js 22 you shouldn’t use the fs.Stats class constructor by yourself. Node.js prints this deprecation message when creating a new stats instance manually:

import { Stats } from 'node:fs'

const stats = new Stats() //  👈 public constructor is deprecated since Node.js v22

Replace new Stats() with undefined

Let’s look at an example where you use a tryStatSync helper method. This tryStatSync helper method always returns a Stats instance:

import { Stats, statSync } from 'node:fs'

/**
 * @returns {Stats}
 */
function tryStatSync(filePath) {  
  try {
    return statSync(path)
  } catch {
    return new Stats() //  👈 deprecated since Node.js v22
  }
}

Notice the new Stats() call in the catch block. This manually created instance causes the deprecation message.

A way to refactor the tryStatSync method is to return undefined in cases of errors. You’re still catching all errors and the return values are a Stats instance or undefined. Here’s the updated tryStatSync method returning undefined when an error happens:

import { statSync } from 'node:fs'

/**
 * @returns {Stats | undefined}
 */
function tryStatSync(filePath) {  
  try {
    return statSync(path)
  } catch {
    return undefined // instead of `new Stats()` here
  }
}

Your code consuming the tryStatSync method must change to check whether the return value is a Stats instance. If yes, you can go ahead and call the methods or access attributes:

const stats = tryStatSync('my/file/path')

if (stats && stats.isDirectory()) {  
  // your handling …
}

That’s it!

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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