File Streams
Video Course on Real-Time HTML5 with Node.js
fs.readFile
reads in one chunk better to read it in a file stream
streams use buffers - memory efficient
req
and res
are also streams (in the httpServer)request stream
reading a big file with streams:
function readFile(filename){
return ASQ(function(done){
var contents = "";
var stream = fs.createReadStream(filename); // add this point it doesn't start reading the file
// we have to listen to events
stream.on("data", function(chunk){
contents += chunk;
});
// there's an event when it's finished
stream.on("end", function(){
done(contents);
});
});
}