File IO [misc/file_io]

With njs, NGINX is able to read and write files on disk. In this example, data is pushed to a file via HTTP POSTs. We can then read the file using HTTP GET as well as erase the file and start over.

Step 1: Use the following commands to start your NGINX container with this lab’s files:

EXAMPLE='misc/file_io'
docker run --rm --name njs_example  -v $(pwd)/conf/$EXAMPLE.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro -v $(pwd)/njs/:/etc/nginx/njs/:ro -p 80:80 -d nginx

Step 2: Now let’s use curl to test our NGINX server:

curl http://localhost/read
200 <empty reply>

curl http://localhost/push -X POST --data 'AAA'
200

curl http://localhost/push -X POST --data 'BBB'
200

curl http://localhost/push -X POST --data 'CCC'
200

curl http://localhost/read
200 AAABBBCCC

curl http://localhost/flush -X POST
200

curl http://localhost/read
200 <empty reply>

docker stop njs_example

Code Snippets

Notice how the push, flush, and read operations are triggered through NGINX location blocks.

nginx.conf

  http {
    js_path "/etc/nginx/njs/";

    js_import utils.js;
    js_import main from misc/file_io.js;

    server {
          listen 80;

          location /version {
              js_content utils.version;
          }

          location /push {
              js_content main.push;
          }

          location /flush {
              js_content main.flush;
          }

          location /read {
              js_content main.read;
          }
  }

This njs code uses a file on the NGINX server’s disk to provide persistent storage.

file_io.js

var fs = require('fs');
var STORAGE = "/tmp/njs_storage"

function push(r) {
        fs.appendFileSync(STORAGE, r.requestBody);
        r.return(200);
}

function flush(r) {
        fs.writeFileSync(STORAGE, "");
        r.return(200);
}

function read(r) {
        var data = "";
        try {
            data = fs.readFileSync(STORAGE);
        } catch (e) {
        }

        r.return(200, data);
}

export default {push, flush, read}