unified

Project: vfile/vfile

Package: vfile@5.3.6

  1. Dependents: 0
  2. Virtual file format for text processing
  1. remark 199
  2. rehype 89
  3. retext 36
  4. file 34
  5. virtual 18
  6. text 18
  7. vfile 17
  8. message 7
  9. processing 3
  10. warning 2
  11. error 2

vfile

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vfile is a small and browser friendly virtual file format that tracks metadata about files (such as its path and value) and lint messages.

Contents

unified

vfile is part of the unified collective.

What is this?

This package provides a virtual file format. It exposes an API to access the file value, path, metadata about the file, and specifically supports attaching lint messages and errors to certain places in these files.

When should I use this?

The virtual file format is useful when dealing with the concept of files in places where you might not be able to access the file system. The message API is particularly useful when making things that check files (as in, linting).

vfile is made for unified, which amongst other things checks files. However, vfile can be used in other projects that deal with parsing, transforming, and serializing data, to build linters, compilers, static site generators, and other build tools.

This is different from the excellent vinyl in that vfile has a smaller API, a smaller size, and focuses on messages.

Install

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 14.14 and 16.0+), install with npm:

npm install vfile

In Deno with esm.sh:

import {VFile} from 'https://esm.sh/vfile@5'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import {VFile} from 'https://esm.sh/vfile@5?bundle'
</script>

Use

import {VFile} from 'vfile'

const file = new VFile({
  path: '~/example.txt',
  value: 'Alpha *braavo* charlie.'
})

console.log(file.path) // => '~/example.txt'
console.log(file.dirname) // => '~'

file.extname = '.md'

console.log(file.basename) // => 'example.md'

file.basename = 'index.text'

console.log(file.history) // => ['~/example.txt', '~/example.md', '~/index.text']

file.message('Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?', {
  line: 1,
  column: 8
})

console.log(file.messages)

Yields:

[
  [~/index.text:1:8: Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?] {
    reason: 'Unexpected unknown word `braavo`, did you mean `bravo`?',
    line: 1,
    column: 8,
    source: null,
    ruleId: null,
    position: {start: [Object], end: [Object]},
    file: '~/index.text',
    fatal: false
  }
]

API

This package exports the identifier VFile. There is no default export.

VFile(options?)

Create a new virtual file.

options is treated as:

Path related fields are set in the following order (least specific to most specific): history, path, basename, stem, extname, dirname.

You cannot set dirname or extname without setting either history, path, basename, or stem too.

Parameters
Returns

New instance (VFile).

Example
new VFile()
new VFile('console.log("alpha");')
new VFile(Buffer.from('exit 1'))
new VFile({path: path.join('path', 'to', 'readme.md')})
new VFile({stem: 'readme', extname: '.md', dirname: path.join('path', 'to')})
new VFile({other: 'properties', are: 'copied', ov: {e: 'r'}})

file.value

Raw value (Buffer, string, null).

file.cwd

Base of path (string, default: process.cwd() or '/' in browsers).

file.path

Get or set the full path (string?, example: '~/index.min.js').

Cannot be nullified. You can set a file URL (a URL object with a file: protocol) which will be turned into a path with url.fileURLToPath.

file.dirname

Get or set the parent path (string?, example: '~').

Cannot be set if there’s no path yet.

file.basename

Get or set the basename (including extname) (string?, example: 'index.min.js').

Cannot contain path separators ('/' on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\' on windows). Cannot be nullified (use file.path = file.dirname instead).

file.extname

Get or set the extname (including dot) (string?, example: '.js').

Cannot contain path separators ('/' on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\' on windows). Cannot be set if there’s no path yet.

file.stem

Get or set the stem (basename w/o extname) (string?, example: 'index.min').

Cannot contain path separators ('/' on unix, macOS, and browsers, '\' on windows). Cannot be nullified.

file.history

List of filepaths the file moved between (Array<string>).

The first is the original path and the last is the current path.

file.messages

List of messages associated with the file (Array<VFileMessage>).

file.data

Place to store custom information (Record<string, unknown>, default: {}).

It’s OK to store custom data directly on the file but moving it to data is recommended.

VFile#toString(encoding?)

Serialize the file.

Parameters
Returns

Serialized file (string).

VFile#message(reason[, position][, origin])

Create a warning message associated with the file.

Its fatal is set to false and file is set to the current file path. Its added to file.messages.

Parameters
Returns

Message (VFileMessage).

VFile#info(reason[, position][, origin])

Create an info message associated with the file.

Its fatal is set to null and file is set to the current file path. Its added to file.messages.

Parameters
Returns

Message (VFileMessage).

VFile#fail(reason[, position][, origin])

Create a fatal error associated with the file.

Its fatal is set to true and file is set to the current file path. Its added to file.messages.

👉 Note: a fatal error means that a file is no longer processable.

Parameters
Returns

Nothing (never).

Throws

Message (VFileMessage).

BufferEncoding

Encodings supported by the buffer class (TypeScript type).

This is a copy of the types from Node.

Type
type BufferEncoding =
  | 'ascii'
  | 'utf8'
  | 'utf-8'
  | 'utf16le'
  | 'ucs2'
  | 'ucs-2'
  | 'base64'
  | 'base64url'
  | 'latin1'
  | 'binary'
  | 'hex'

Compatible

Things that can be passed to the constructor (TypeScript type).

Type
type Compatible = Options | URL | Value | VFile

Data

Custom information (TypeScript type).

Known attributes can be added to DataMap.

Type
type Data = Record<string, unknown> & Partial<DataMap>

DataMap

This map registers the type of the data key of a VFile (TypeScript type).

This type can be augmented to register custom data types.

Type
interface DataMap {}
Example
declare module 'vfile' {
  interface DataMap {
    // `file.data.name` is typed as `string`
    name: string
  }
}

Map

Raw source map (TypeScript type).

See source-map.

Fields

Options

An object with arbitrary fields and the following known fields (TypeScript type).

Fields

Reporter

Type for a reporter (TypeScript type).

Type
type Reporter<Settings extends ReporterSettings> = (
  files: Array<VFile>,
  options: Settings
) => string

ReporterSettings

Configuration for reporters (TypeScript type).

Type
type ReporterSettings = Record<string, unknown>

Value

Contents of the file (TypeScript type).

Can either be text or a Buffer structure.

Type
type Value = string | Buffer

Well-known

The following fields are considered “non-standard”, but they are allowed, and some utilities use them:

There are also well-known fields on messages, see them in a similar section of vfile-message.

List of utilities

👉 Note: see unist for projects that work with nodes.

Reporters

👉 Note: want to make your own reporter? Reporters must accept Array<VFile> as their first argument, and return string. Reporters may accept other values too, in which case it’s suggested to stick to vfile-reporters interface.

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports the additional types BufferEncoding, Compatible, Data, DataMap, Map, Options, Reporter, ReporterSettings, and Value.

Compatibility

Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with all maintained versions of Node.js. As of now, that is Node.js 14.14+ and 16.0+. Our projects sometimes work with older versions, but this is not guaranteed.

Contribute

See contributing.md in vfile/.github for ways to get started. See support.md for ways to get help.

This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.

Support this effort and give back by sponsoring on OpenCollective!

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Expo

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You?

Acknowledgments

The initial release of this project was authored by @wooorm.

Thanks to @contra, @phated, and others for their work on Vinyl, which was a huge inspiration.

Thanks to @brendo, @shinnn, @KyleAMathews, @sindresorhus, and @denysdovhan for contributing commits since!

License

MIT © Titus Wormer