Handling permissions errors on file I/O

[khawkins]

It would be nice if shelljs gracefully handled file I/O errors due to permissions issues, as opposed to the current full error dump you get now:

    var shelljs = require('./shelljs');
    shelljs.mkdir('-p', '/var/log/myNewDir');

    $ node shelljsConsumer.js
    shell.js: internal error
    Error: EACCES, permission denied '/var/log/myNewDir'
        at Object.fs.mkdirSync (fs.js:642:18)
        at mkdirSyncRecursive (shell.js:1649:8)
        at shell.js:541:7
        at Array.forEach (native)
        at Object._mkdir (shell.js:526:8)
        at Object.mkdir (shell.js:1491:23)
        at Object.<anonymous> (shelljsConsumer.js:2:10)
        at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
        at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
        at Module.load (module.js:356:32)

It seems like, for a lot of use cases (like this one), a more user-friendly error handling path could be initiated.

[jeffheifetz]

It would also be nice if at least shelljs still respected the fatal argument. Since this is an OS error it always calls process.exit (https://github.com/arturadib/shelljs/blob/master/src/common.js#L179)

[ghost]

Bumping this issue. I'm trying to use shelljs in a server environment because frankly, it's way easier to use than the built-in nodejs logic and my use is minimal so I'm not too worried about synchronicity performance issues. I've been using exec() to mv files when needed instead of mv() because I can't have shelljs killing my server process just because it encountered an EACCES error. I would actually vote that shelljs never terminate the process and just throw exceptions instead; let the developers handle the errors! Barring that, my second vote would be to at least make shelljs respect the config.fatal setting in all circumstances, as suggested by @jeffheifetz, so the behavior could be overridden when appropriate.

[akras14]

mv has a similar issue.

var shell = require("shelljs");
shell.mv("test", "/");

$: node test.js 
shell.js: internal error
Error: EACCES, permission denied 'test'
    at Object.fs.renameSync (fs.js:554:18)
    at /home/alexk/projects/support/uploader/node_modules/shelljs/src/mv.js:77:8
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at Object._mv (/home/alexk/projects/support/uploader/node_modules/shelljs/src/mv.js:53:11)
    at Object.mv (/home/alexk/projects/support/uploader/node_modules/shelljs/src/common.js:186:23)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/alexk/projects/support/uploader/test.js:3:7)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)

In comparison exec seems to handle it gracefully, so I am switching to exec for my purposes.

var shell = require("shelljs");
shell.exec("mv test /");

$: node test.js 
mv: cannot move ‘test’ to ‘/test’: Permission denied

[nfischer]

#474 fixed this issue for mkdir(). Would anyone want to open a PR for mv()?

[nfischer]

This exception just means "there's a bug in shelljs, it didn't handle something it should have handled." So, this issue is about a very general problem.

I already fixed the mkdir issue in #474, and I filed an issue specific to mv in #872. I'm closing this in favor of the mv-specific issue.

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Anyone stumbling across this thread: if you have a similar exception, please file a new github issue, as it will likely require a unique patch.