CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.jstemporary-files
sidd
sidd

Reputation: 669

NodeJs temporary file creation, serve and deletion using tmp or something else

I am trying to make a compiler in which users make code at abc.com/newProject and their output is in an iframe, that iframe need to be served files that are made at the abc.com/newProject. So I will be doing a POST of JSON obj at abc.com/compile-project that will create files and those will be used by the iframe, after being used those should get deleted. Files are basically JS files that iframe will fetch using script in header.

So a pseudo-code will look something like this:- 

app.post('/compile-project', function(req, res){
    //Directory created using node tmp
    //files created in the directory
    //These files are accessible using <script src="/js/file1.js"></script>
    //when the current connection requests the files they get deleted

});

Any help will be appreciated thanks.....

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3722

Answers (1)

rsp
rsp

Reputation: 111336

I am trying to make a compiler [...] Any help will be appreciated thanks.....

I would strongly discourage you from doing that if you don't know what you're doing (and considering the fact that you're asking how to save a file then apparently you don't).

The requirements that you described are extremely simple but you need to have much deeper understanding of everything that's going on to avoid serious security problems that you will encounter with no doubt along the way.

What you describes can be done without even using a file system, since all your files are served only once so it doesn't make much sense to store them in actual files. But even if you insist on the file system then all you need is to use fs.mkdtemp to create a temporary directory, use something like the uuid module for unique IDs to use in the filenames, then use fs.writeFile to write a file. This is all you need for the file upload endpoint. Now in the download endpoint all you need is to use fs.readFile to read the file and fs.unlink to remove it. That's it.

Now, it will surely get you into trouble of failures on browser reloads, back button not working, and finally security issues of people being able to serve any random code from your servers leading to vulnerabilities too numerous to even list here.

Take a look at the source code of repl.it and JS Bin on GitHub:

to appreciate the scope of the project that you are willing to undertake.

Upvotes: 0

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