How do I use chmod with Node.js

Question

How do I use chmod with Node.js?

There is a method in the package fs, which should do this, but I don't know what it takes as the second argument.

fs.chmod(path, mode, [callback])

Asynchronous chmod(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.chmodSync(path, mode)

Synchronous chmod(2).

(from the Node.js documentation)

If I do something like

fs.chmodSync('test', 0755); 

nothing happens (the file isn't changed to that mode).

fs.chmodSync('test', '+x'); 

doesn't work either.

I'm working on a Windows machine btw.

Answer 1

According to its sourcecode /lib/fs.js on line 508:

fs.chmodSync = function(path, mode) {   return binding.chmod(pathModule._makeLong(path), modeNum(mode)); }; 

and line 203:

function modeNum(m, def) {   switch (typeof m) {     case 'number': return m;     case 'string': return parseInt(m, 8);     default:       if (def) {         return modeNum(def);       } else {         return undefined;       }   } } 

it takes either an octal number or a string.

e.g.

fs.chmodSync('test', 0755); fs.chmodSync('test', '755'); 

It doesn't work in your case because the file modes only exist on *nix machines.

Answer 2

The correct way to specify Octal is as follows:

fs.chmodSync('test', 0o755);  

Refer to the file modes here.