Webpack nodejs fs.readFile is not a function

Question

I have a webpack config like:

var path = require('path')  module.exports = {     entry: "./index.js",     output: {         path: path.join(__dirname, 'static'),         filename:'bundle.js'     },     module: {         loaders: [             { test: /\.js$/, exclude: /node_modules/, loader: "babel-loader"},             { test: /\.json$/, loader: 'json-loader' },         ]     },     node: {       fs: "empty"     } }; 

And I want to read a file using fs

I am doing something like:

var fs = require('fs') console.log(fs)  fs.readFile('input.txt', function (err, buffer) {         console.log("buffer")         console.log(buffer)       }) 

I just want to read a file here but when I do this it gives me error saying:

fs.readFile is not a function

I have installed fs using npm install --save fs

Also when I print fs it gives me empty object. Above I have done console.log(fs) it is giving me empty object

What is wrong in here?

Answer 1

As I believe the comments mentioned,

node: { fs: "empty" } 

Needs to be removed. Moreover, all your code must run on the server. You cannot read files like this in the browser. Node APIs are server-side only, so you would need to build an API using express or some similar library e.g.

    router.get('/file/read', (req, res, next) => { fs.readFile('input.txt', function (err, buffer) {             console.log("buffer")             res.send(buffer);         })      }) 

Then in your browser you would need to use AJAX to call the API and retrieve the file contents.

Reading arbitrary files has OBVIOUS SECURITY ISSUES . You should not allow the api to read any files the user likes. You should be very careful here to restict input and limit the set of files available.