Access Root directory using Node

Question

Is there any way to access the Linux root ('/') directory through node? Right now, I have something like this:

multipart   = require('connect-multiparty')
app.use(multipart({
   uploadDir: config.tmp
}));

...

var file = req.files.file;
fs.renameSync(file.path, ".", function(err) {
    if(err) console.error(err.stack);
})

but the problem is that file.path is refering to a folder inside the Linux root rather than the project's root.

Answer 1

The most literal answer to your question

Is there any way to access the Linux root ('/') directory through node?

Is yes, by using / . Node.js shouldn't be giving any special treatment to it. Root is a directory just like any other.

On to your code...

fs.renameSync takes a source first and destination second. You are renaming a file to . , which represents the current working directory. I'm not even sure if you can rename something to . . I would extract the filename from the path, then set the destination to the root directory plus that file name.

How to access the root directory, which as you said, is / , well, use / .

By the way, why are you using renameSync with a callback and nothing after it? According to the documentation, this is not valid. It's either async with a callback, or sync without a callback. So your callback is probably not firing.

var file = req.files.file;
fs.rename(file.path, '/' + path.basename(file.path), function(err) {
    if(err) console.error(err.stack);
});

By the way, I have to advocate strongly against an application writing files to the Linux root directory, for a number of reasons:

1. Requires root privileges, which opens a can of worms.
2. Nobody would ever think to look there
3. The slightest bug could cause irrevocable damage. What if the desired file name is "etc" or "boot"?
4. There are a million better locations for storing files uploaded from a web server.