Multer Delete File

Multer is a popular middleware for uploading files in Node.js web applications. However, it's also important to know how to delete files that have been uploaded using Multer. In this guide, we'll take a look at how to delete files using Multer.

Deleting Files with Multer

To delete files with Multer, we need to access the fs module, which is built into Node.js. fs provides a way to work with the file system in a Node.js application.

To delete a file, we need to call the fs.unlink() method, which deletes the specified file. We can pass the file path to this method to delete the file.

Here's an example code:

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const express = require('express');
const multer = require('multer');

const app = express();
const upload = multer({ dest: 'uploads/' });

app.post('/upload', upload.single('file'), (req, res, next) => {
  // Do something with the uploaded file
  // ...
  const filePath = req.file.path;
  
  // Delete the uploaded file
  fs.unlink(filePath, err => {
    if (err) {
      console.error(err);
      return res.status(500).send({ message: 'Failed to delete file' });
    }
    
    return res.send({ message: 'File deleted successfully' });
  });
});

In this example, we're using the upload.single() method to upload a single file to the uploads/ directory. Once the file is uploaded, we get the file path using req.file.path. We then pass this file path to fs.unlink() to delete the file.

If fs.unlink() encounters an error while deleting the file, it will return an error object. We can handle this error by logging it to the console and sending an error response with a 500 status code. Otherwise, we can send a success response with a message indicating that the file was deleted successfully.

Conclusion

In this guide, we've seen how to delete files using Multer in a Node.js web application. We've used the fs module to delete files, and handled errors that might occur during the deletion process. By following the examples and guidelines given here, you should be able to easily delete files uploaded using Multer in your own applications.