How can I find the oldest folder in a node directory? - node.js

Question

I am trying to find the oldest folder in a directory of my nodejs app.
Right now I get the folder names by fs.readdirSync and the I try to run through the mtime in a for-loop with the fs.stat function. But it does not return any values.
cron.schedule('* * * * *', () => {
folders = fs.readdirSync(__dirname + '/uploads/');
var oldestTime;
var oldest;
for (var i = 0; i < folders.length; i++) {
let stats = fs.statSync(folders[i]);
if (oldestTime == undefined || stats.mtime < oldestTime) {
oldestTime = stats.mtime;
oldest = folders[i];
}
}
console.log("oldest folder name is:", oldest)
}
Is there a better way?
Thank you so much!

Answer 1

You use the asynchronous version of fs.stat(). Try the synchronous (callback-free) fs.statSync() instead.
And don't forget that readdir returns results named . for the current directory and .. for the parent directory. You may want to exclude those from your mtime search.
And please spend some time reading up on the Javascript asynchronous programming model.

Answer 2

folders = fs.readdirSync(__dirname + "/uploads");
var oldestTime;
var oldest;
for (var i = 0; i < folders.length; i++) {
let stats = fs.statSync(__dirname + "/uploads/" + folders[i]);
if (oldestTime == undefined || stats.mtime < oldestTime) {
oldestTime = stats.mtime;
oldest = folders[i];
}
}
console.log("oldest folder name is:", oldest)
or use sort to get the oldest one:
const fs = require('fs');
const cron = require("cron");
var job = new cron.CronJob('* * * * * *', function () {
const folders = fs.readdirSync(__dirname + "/uploads");
var oldest = folders.sort((a, b) => fs.statSync(__dirname + '/uploads/' + a).mtime - fs.statSync(__dirname + '/uploads/' + b).mtime)[0];
console.log("oldest folder name is:", oldest)
});
job.start();