How to override with outputFile?

[brunano21]

I'm using the outputFile function but I would like to override the file if it already exists. However, seems it is not possible to pass an option to the function.
How to accomplish that thus?

Edit: Even if it should override an existing file, this doesnt happen.

[thomas-riccardi]

By default outputFile does overwrite the file.
What is missing is documentation on the 3rd parameter: options, which seems to be forwarded down to nodejs native fs, where we can pass a flag, to not override (ie append):
fs.outputFile('/tmp/foo', 'bar', {flag: 'a'}) will append to the /tmp/foo file, instead of override.

See #197.

[jprichardson]

@brunano21 as @triccardi-systran stated, the whole point of outputFile is to behave exactly like writeFile except that it creates the directory if it doesn't exist. Can you paste a snippet of what you're trying to do along with your expectations? Thanks.

[brunano21]

@jprichardson
Hi,
my snippet is the following:

function _takeScreenshot (object, action) {
    var self = this;
    var remote = self._remote;
    var path = null;
    var filename = null;

    path = "./tests-screenshots/" + self._testName + "/ref";
    filename = ("000" + (self._totalSteps - self._testSteps.length - 1)).slice(-3) + ".png";

    return remote
        .takeScreenshot()
        .then(function (data) {

            fse.ensureDirSync(path);

            fse.outputFile(path + "/" + filename, data);
            return remote;
        });
};

Unfortunately the screenshot is saved only if the file does not exist. If it does, it's not overwritten.

[jprichardson]

The problem is that you are not properly interfacing this library with promises.

If you your snippet to work, you must either do the following:

1. Use the sync version of fse.outputFileSync().
2. Wrap the async version of fse.outputFile() into a promise.
3. Use fs-extra-promise: https://github.com/overlookmotel/fs-extra-promise

Demonstrating 1:

var fse = require('fs-extra')

...

return remote
  .takeScreenshot()
  .then(function (data) {
    fse.outputFileSync(path + "/" + filename, data)
      return remote;
    });

Demonstrating 2:

var fse = require('fs-extra')

...

return remote
  .takeScreenshot()
  .then(function (data) {
    return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
      fse.outputFile(path + "/" + filename, data, function(err) {
         if (err) return reject(err)
         else resolve(remote)
      })
    })

Demonstrating 3:

var fse = require('fs-extra-promise')

...

return remote
  .takeScreenshot()
  .then(function (data) {
      return fse.outputFileAsync(path + "/" + filename, data)
    })

Hope that helps.