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Files API

The files API enables users to use the File System abstraction of IPFS. There are two Files API, one at the top level, the original add, cat, get and ls, and another behind the files, also known as MFS

Explore the Mutable File System through interactive coding challenges in our ProtoSchool tutorial.

The Regular API

The regular, top-level API for add, cat, get and ls Files on IPFS

ipfs.add(data, [options])

Import a file or data into IPFS.

Parameters

Name Type Description
data Object Data to import (see below)

data may be:

  • FileContent (see below for definition)
  • FileObject (see below for definition)
FileObject

FileObject is a plain JS object of the following form:

{
  // The path you want the file to be accessible at from the root CID _after_ it has been added
  path?: string
  // The contents of the file (see below for definition)
  content?: FileContent
  // File mode to store the entry with (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system_permissions#Numeric_notation)
  mode?: number | string
  // The modification time of the entry (see below for definition)
  mtime?: UnixTime
}

If no path is specified, then the item will be added to the root level and will be given a name according to it's CID.

If no content is passed, then the item is treated as an empty directory.

One of path or content must be passed.

Both mode and mtime are optional and will result in different CIDs for the same file if passed.

mode will have a default value applied if not set, see UnixFS Metadata for further discussion.

FileContent

FileContent is one of the following types:

Uint8Array | Blob | String | Iterable<Uint8Array> | Iterable<number> | AsyncIterable<Uint8Array> | ReadableStream<Uint8Array>

UnixTime is one of the following types:

Date | { secs: number, nsecs?: number } | number[]

As an object, secs is the number of seconds since (positive) or before (negative) the Unix Epoch began and nsecs is the number of nanoseconds since the last full second.

As an array of numbers, it must have two elements, as per the output of process.hrtime().

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
chunker String 'size-262144' chunking algorithm used to build ipfs DAGs
cidVersion Number 0 the CID version to use when storing the data
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' multihash hashing algorithm to use
onlyHash boolean false If true, will not add blocks to the blockstore
pin boolean true pin this object when adding
progress function undefined a function that will be called with the number of bytes added as a file is added to ipfs and the path of the file being added
rawLeaves boolean false if true, DAG leaves will contain raw file data and not be wrapped in a protobuf
trickle boolean false if true will use the trickle DAG format for DAG generation
wrapWithDirectory boolean false Adds a wrapping node around the content
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<UnixFSEntry> A object describing the added data

Each yielded object is of the form:

{
  path: '/tmp/myfile.txt',
  cid: CID('QmHash'),
  mode: Number, // implicit if not provided - 0644 for files, 0755 for directories
  mtime?: { secs: Number, nsecs: Number },
  size: 123
}

Example

const file = {
  path: '/tmp/myfile.txt',
  content: 'ABC'
}

const result = await ipfs.add(content)

console.info(result)

/*
Prints:
{
  "path": "tmp",
  "cid": CID("QmWXdjNC362aPDtwHPUE9o2VMqPeNeCQuTBTv1NsKtwypg"),
  "mode": 493,
  "mtime": { secs: Number, nsecs: Number },
  "size": 67
}
*/

Now ipfs.io/ipfs/Qm..pg/myfile.txt returns the "ABC" string.

ipfs.addAll(source, [options])

Import multiple files and data into IPFS.

Parameters

Name Type Description
source FileStream<FileContent|FileObject> Data to import (see below)
FileStream

FileStream is a stream of FileContent or FileObject entries of the type:

Iterable<FileContent|FileObject> | AsyncIterable<FileContent|FileObject> | ReadableStream<FileContent|FileObject>

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
chunker string 'size-262144' chunking algorithm used to build ipfs DAGs
cidVersion number 0 the CID version to use when storing the data
enableShardingExperiment boolean false allows to create directories with an unlimited number of entries currently size of unixfs directories is limited by the maximum block size. Note that this is an experimental feature
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' multihash hashing algorithm to use
onlyHash boolean false If true, will not add blocks to the blockstore
pin boolean true pin this object when adding
progress function undefined a function that will be called with the number of bytes added as a file is added to ipfs and the path of the file being added
rawLeaves boolean false if true, DAG leaves will contain raw file data and not be wrapped in a protobuf
shardSplitThreshold Number 1000 Directories with more than this number of files will be created as HAMT-sharded directories
trickle boolean false if true will use the trickle DAG format for DAG generation
wrapWithDirectory boolean false Adds a wrapping node around the content
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
AsyncIterable<UnixFSEntry> An async iterable that yields objects describing the added data

Each yielded object is of the form:

{
  path: '/tmp/myfile.txt',
  cid: CID('QmHash'),
  mode: Number, // implicit if not provided - 0644 for files, 0755 for directories
  mtime?: { secs: Number, nsecs: Number },
  size: 123
}

Example

const files = [{
  path: '/tmp/myfile.txt',
  content: 'ABC'
}]

for await (const result of ipfs.addAll(files)) {
  console.log(result)
}

/*
Prints out objects like:

{
  "path": "tmp",
  "cid": CID("QmWXdjNC362aPDtwHPUE9o2VMqPeNeCQuTBTv1NsKtwypg"),
  "mode": 493,
  "mtime": { secs: Number, nsecs: Number },
  "size": 67
}

{
  "path": "/tmp/myfile.txt",
  "cid": CID("QmNz1UBzpdd4HfZ3qir3aPiRdX5a93XwTuDNyXRc6PKhWW"),
  "mode": 420,
  "mtime": { secs: Number, nsecs: Number },
  "size": 11
}
*/

Now ipfs.io/ipfs/Qm...WW returns the "ABC" string.

Notes

Chunking options

The chunker option can be one of the following formats:

  • size-{size}
  • rabin
  • rabin-{avg}
  • rabin-{min}-{avg}-{max}

size-* will result in fixed-size chunks, rabin(-*) will use rabin fingerprinting to potentially generate variable size chunks.

Hash algorithms

See the multihash module for the list of all possible values.

Importing files from the file system

Both js-ipfs and js-ipfs-http-client export a utility to make importing files from the file system easier (Note: it not available in the browser).

const IPFS = require('ipfs')
const { globSource } = IPFS

const ipfs = await IPFS.create()

//options specific to globSource
const globSourceOptions = {
  recursive: true
};

//example options to pass to IPFS
const addOptions = {
  pin: true,
  wrapWithDirectory: true,
  timeout: 10000
};

for await (const file of ipfs.addAll(globSource('./docs', globSourceOptions), addOptions)) {
  console.log(file)
}

/*
{
  path: 'docs/assets/anchor.js',
  cid: CID('QmVHxRocoWgUChLEvfEyDuuD6qJ4PhdDL2dTLcpUy3dSC2'),
  size: 15347
}
{
  path: 'docs/assets/bass-addons.css',
  hash: CID('QmPiLWKd6yseMWDTgHegb8T7wVS7zWGYgyvfj7dGNt2viQ'),
  size: 232
}
...
*/
Importing a file from a URL

Both js-ipfs and js-ipfs-http-client export a utility to make importing a file from a URL easier.

const IPFS = require('ipfs')
const { urlSource } = IPFS

const ipfs = await IPFS.create()

const file = await ipfs.add(urlSource('https://ipfs.io/images/ipfs-logo.svg'))
console.log(file)

/*
{
  path: 'ipfs-logo.svg',
  cid: CID('QmTqZhR6f7jzdhLgPArDPnsbZpvvgxzCZycXK7ywkLxSyU'),
  size: 3243
}
*/

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

ipfs.cat(ipfsPath, [options])

Returns a file addressed by a valid IPFS Path.

Parameters

Name Type Description
ipfsPath String or CID An IPFS path or CID to export

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
offset Number undefined An offset to start reading the file from
length Number undefined An optional max length to read from the file
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
AsyncIterable<Uint8Array> An async iterable that yields Uint8Array objects with the contents of path

Example

for await (const chunk of ipfs.cat(ipfsPath)) {
  console.info(chunk)
}

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

ipfs.get(ipfsPath, [options])

Fetch a file or an entire directory tree from IPFS that is addressed by a valid IPFS Path.

Parameters

Name Type Description
ipfsPath String or CID An IPFS path or CID to export

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
AsyncIterable<Object> An async iterable that yields objects representing the files

Each yielded object is of the form:

{
  type: string, // 'file' or 'dir'
  path: string, // a deeply nested path within the directory structure
  content?: <AsyncIterable<Uint8Array>>, // only present if `type` is 'file'
  mode: Number, // implicit if not provided - 0644 for files, 0755 for directories
  mtime?: { secs: Number, nsecs: Number }
}

Here, each path corresponds to the name of a file, and content is an async iterable with the file contents.

Example

const cid = 'QmQ2r6iMNpky5f1m4cnm3Yqw8VSvjuKpTcK1X7dBR1LkJF'

for await (const file of ipfs.get(cid)) {
  console.log(file.type, file.path)

  if (!file.content) continue;

  const content = []

  for await (const chunk of file.content) {
    content.push(chunk)
  }

  console.log(content)
}

When invoking this method via the HTTP API client, the response arrives as a stream containing either the entire contents of the file (if the passed CID resolves to a file) or recursive directory tree and all files contained therein (if the passed CID resolves to a directory).

If you are iterating over a directory, in order to proceed to the next entry in the stream, you must consume the content field of the current entry if it is present.

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

ipfs.ls(ipfsPath)

Lists a directory from IPFS that is addressed by a valid IPFS Path.

Parameters

Name Type Description
ipfsPath String or CID An IPFS path or CID to list

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
AsyncIterable<Object> An async iterable that yields objects representing the files

Each yielded object is of the form:

{
  depth: 1,
  name: 'alice.txt',
  path: 'QmVvjDy7yF7hdnqE8Hrf4MHo5ABDtb5AbX6hWbD3Y42bXP/alice.txt',
  size: 11696,
  cid: CID('QmZyUEQVuRK3XV7L9Dk26pg6RVSgaYkiSTEdnT2kZZdwoi'),
  type: 'file',
  mode: Number, // implicit if not provided - 0644 for files, 0755 for directories
  mtime?: { secs: Number, nsecs: Number }
}

Example

const cid = 'QmQ2r6iMNpky5f1m4cnm3Yqw8VSvjuKpTcK1X7dBR1LkJF'

for await (const file of ipfs.ls(cid)) {
  console.log(file.path)
}

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

The Mutable Files API

The Mutable File System (MFS) is a virtual file system on top of IPFS that exposes a Unix like API over a virtual directory. It enables users to write and read from paths without having to worry about updating the graph. It enables things like ipfs-blob-store to exist.

ipfs.files.chmod(path, mode, [options])

Change mode for files and directories

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String or CID An MFS Path, IPFS path or CID to modify
mode String or Number An integer (e.g. 0o755 or parseInt('0755', 8)) or a string modification of the existing mode, e.g. 'a+x', 'g-w', etc

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
recursive boolean false If true mode will be applied to the entire tree under path
flush boolean true If true the changes will be immediately flushed to disk
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' The hash algorithm to use for any updated entries
cidVersion Number 0 The CID version to use for any updated entries
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<void> If action is successfully completed. Otherwise an error will be thrown

Example

// To give a file -rwxrwxrwx permissions
await ipfs.files.chmod('/path/to/file.txt', parseInt('0777', 8))

// Alternatively
await ipfs.files.chmod('/path/to/file.txt', '+rwx')

// You can omit the leading `0` too
await ipfs.files.chmod('/path/to/file.txt', '777')

ipfs.files.cp(...from, to, [options])

Copy files from one location to another

Parameters

Name Type Description
from One or more Strings or CIDs An MFS path, IPFS path or CID
to String An MFS path

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
parents boolean false If true, create intermediate directories
flush boolean true If true the changes will be immediately flushed to disk
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' The hash algorithm to use for any updated entries
cidVersion Number 0 The CID version to use for any updated entries
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<void> If action is successfully completed. Otherwise an error will be thrown

Example

// To copy a file
await ipfs.files.cp('/src-file', '/dst-file')

// To copy a directory
await ipfs.files.cp('/src-dir', '/dst-dir')

// To copy multiple files to a directory
await ipfs.files.cp(['/src-file1', '/src-file2'], '/dst-dir')

Notes

If from has multiple values then to must be a directory.

If from has a single value and to exists and is a directory, from will be copied into to.

If from has a single value and to exists and is a file, from must be a file and the contents of to will be replaced with the contents of from otherwise an error will be returned.

If from is an IPFS path, and an MFS path exists with the same name, the IPFS path will be chosen.

If from is an IPFS path and the content does not exist in your node's repo, only the root node of the source file with be retrieved from the network and linked to from the destination. The remainder of the file will be retrieved on demand.

ipfs.files.mkdir(path, [options])

Make a directory in your MFS

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String The MFS path to create a directory at

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
parents boolean false If true, create intermediate directories
mode Number undefined An integer that represents the file mode
mtime Object undefined A Date object, an object with { secs, nsecs } properties where secs is the number of seconds since (positive) or before (negative) the Unix Epoch began and nsecs is the number of nanoseconds since the last full second, or the output of process.hrtime()
flush boolean true If true the changes will be immediately flushed to disk
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' The hash algorithm to use for any updated entries
cidVersion Number 0 The CID version to use for any updated entries
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<void> If action is successfully completed. Otherwise an error will be thrown

Example

await ipfs.files.mkdir('/my/beautiful/directory')

ipfs.files.stat(path, [options])

Get file or directory statistics

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String The MFS path return statistics from

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
hash boolean false If true, return only the CID
size boolean false If true, return only the size
withLocal boolean false If true, compute the amount of the DAG that is local and if possible the total size
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<Object> An object containing the file/directory status

the returned object has the following keys:

  • cid a CID instance
  • size is an integer with the file size in Bytes
  • cumulativeSize is an integer with the size of the DAGNodes making up the file in Bytes
  • type is a string that can be either directory or file
  • blocks if type is directory, this is the number of files in the directory. If it is file it is the number of blocks that make up the file
  • withLocality is a boolean to indicate if locality information is present
  • local is a boolean to indicate if the queried dag is fully present locally
  • sizeLocal is an integer indicating the cumulative size of the data present locally

Example

const stats = await ipfs.files.stat('/file.txt')
console.log(stats)

// {
//   hash: CID('QmXmJBmnYqXVuicUfn9uDCC8kxCEEzQpsAbeq1iJvLAmVs'),
//   size: 60,
//   cumulativeSize: 118,
//   blocks: 1,
//   type: 'file'
// }

ipfs.files.touch(path, [options])

Update the mtime of a file or directory

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String The MFS path to update the mtime for

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
mtime Object Now Either a Date object, an object with { sec, nsecs } properties or the output of process.hrtime()
flush boolean true If true the changes will be immediately flushed to disk
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' The hash algorithm to use for any updated entries
cidVersion Number 0 The CID version to use for any updated entries
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<void> If action is successfully completed. Otherwise an error will be thrown

Example

// set the mtime to the current time
await ipfs.files.touch('/path/to/file.txt')

// set the mtime to a specific time
await ipfs.files.touch('/path/to/file.txt', {
  mtime: new Date('May 23, 2014 14:45:14 -0700')
})

ipfs.files.rm(path, [options])

Remove a file or directory.

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String or Array<String> One or more MFS paths to remove

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
recursive boolean false If true all paths under the specifed path(s) will be removed
flush boolean true If true the changes will be immediately flushed to disk
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' The hash algorithm to use for any updated entries
cidVersion Number 0 The CID version to use for any updated entries
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<void> If action is successfully completed. Otherwise an error will be thrown

Example

// To remove a file
await ipfs.files.rm('/my/beautiful/file.txt')

// To remove multiple files
await ipfs.files.rm(['/my/beautiful/file.txt', '/my/other/file.txt'])

// To remove a directory
await ipfs.files.rm('/my/beautiful/directory', { recursive: true })

ipfs.files.read(path, [options])

Read a file

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String or CID An MFS path, IPFS Path or CID to read

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
offset Number undefined An offset to start reading the file from
length Number undefined An optional max length to read from the file
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
AsyncIterable<Uint8Array> An async iterable that yields Uint8Array objects with the contents of path

Example

const chunks = []

for await (const chunk of ipfs.files.read('/hello-world')) {
  chunks.push(chunk)
}

console.log(uint8ArrayConcat(chunks).toString())
// Hello, World!

ipfs.files.write(path, content, [options])

Write to an MFS path

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String The MFS path where you will write to
content String, Uint8Array, AsyncIterable<Uint8Array> or Blob The content to write to the path

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
offset Number undefined An offset to start writing to file at
length Number undefined Optionally limit how many bytes are read from the stream
create boolean false Create the MFS path if it does not exist
parents boolean false Create intermediate MFS paths if they do not exist
truncate boolean false Truncate the file at the MFS path if it would have been larger than the passed content
rawLeaves boolean false If true, DAG leaves will contain raw file data and not be wrapped in a protobuf
mode Number undefined An integer that represents the file mode
mtime Object undefined A Date object, an object with { secs, nsecs } properties where secs is the number of seconds since (positive) or before (negative) the Unix Epoch began and nsecs is the number of nanoseconds since the last full second, or the output of process.hrtime()
flush boolean true If true the changes will be immediately flushed to disk
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' The hash algorithm to use for any updated entries
cidVersion Number 0 The CID version to use for any updated entries
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<void> If action is successfully completed. Otherwise an error will be thrown

Example

await ipfs.files.write('/hello-world', new TextEncoder().encode('Hello, world!'))

ipfs.files.mv(...from, to, [options])

Move files from one location to another

Parameters

Name Type Description
...from String One or more MFS paths to move
to String The location to move files to

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
parents boolean false Create intermediate MFS paths if they do not exist
flush boolean true If true the changes will be immediately flushed to disk
hashAlg String 'sha2-256' The hash algorithm to use for any updated entries
cidVersion Number 0 The CID version to use for any updated entries
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<void> If action is successfully completed. Otherwise an error will be thrown

Example

await ipfs.files.mv('/src-file', '/dst-file')

await ipfs.files.mv('/src-dir', '/dst-dir')

await ipfs.files.mv(['/src-file1', '/src-file2'], '/dst-dir')

Notes

If from has multiple values then to must be a directory.

If from has a single value and to exists and is a directory, from will be moved into to.

If from has a single value and to exists and is a file, from must be a file and the contents of to will be replaced with the contents of from otherwise an error will be returned.

If from is an IPFS path, and an MFS path exists with the same name, the IPFS path will be chosen.

If from is an IPFS path and the content does not exist in your node's repo, only the root node of the source file with be retrieved from the network and linked to from the destination. The remainder of the file will be retrieved on demand.

All values of from will be removed after the operation is complete unless they are an IPFS path.

ipfs.files.flush(path, [options])

Flush a given path's data to the disk

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String The MFS path to flush

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
Promise<CID> The CID of the path that has been flushed

Example

const cid = await ipfs.files.flush('/')

ipfs.files.ls(path, [options])

List directories in the local mutable namespace

Parameters

Name Type Description
path String The MFS path to list

Options

An optional object which may have the following keys:

Name Type Default Description
timeout Number undefined A timeout in ms
signal AbortSignal undefined Can be used to cancel any long running requests started as a result of this call

Returns

Type Description
AsyncIterable<Object> An async iterable that yields objects representing the files

Each object contains the following keys:

  • name which is the file's name
  • type which is the object's type (directory or file)
  • size the size of the file in bytes
  • cid the hash of the file (A CID instance)
  • mode the UnixFS mode as a Number
  • mtime an objects with numeric secs and nsecs properties

Example

for await (const file of ipfs.files.ls('/screenshots')) {
  console.log(file.name)
}
// 2018-01-22T18:08:46.775Z.png
// 2018-01-22T18:08:49.184Z.png