sanitize-filename

Sanitize a string to be safe for use as a filename by removing directory
paths and invalid characters.

Install

npm: sanitize-filename

npm install sanitize-filename

Example

 var sanitize = require("sanitize-filename");

// Some string that may be unsafe or invalid as a filename
var UNSAFE_USER_INPUT = "~/.\u0000ssh/authorized_keys";

// Sanitize the string to be safe for use as a filename.
var filename = sanitize(UNSAFE_USER_INPUT);
// -> "~.sshauthorized_keys"

Details

sanitize-filename removes the following:

• Control characters (0x00–0x1f and 0x80–0x9f)
• Reserved characters (/, ?, <, >, \, :, *, |, and
  ")
• Unix reserved filenames (. and ..)
• Trailing periods and spaces (for Windows)
• Windows reserved filenames (CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1,
  COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9,
  LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and
  LPT9)

The resulting string is truncated to 255 bytes in length. The
string will not contain any directory paths and will be safe to use as a
filename.

Empty String "" Result

An empty string "" can be returned. For example:

 var sanitize = require("sanitize-filename");
sanitize("..")
// -> ""

Non-unique Filenames

Two different inputs can return the same value. For example:

 var sanitize = require("sanitize-filename");
sanitize("file?")
// -> "file"
sanitize ("*file*")
// -> "file"

File Systems

Sanitized filenames will be safe for use on modern Windows, OS X, and
Unix file systems (NTFS, ext, etc.).

FAT 8.3 filenames are not supported.

Test Your File System

The test program will use various strings (including the Big List of
Naughty Strings) to create files in the working directory. Run
npm test to run tests against your file system.

API

sanitize(inputString, [options])

Sanitize inputString by removing or replacing invalid characters.

Options:

• options.replacement: optional, string/function, default: "". If passed
  as a string, it's used as the replacement for invalid characters. If passed as
  a function, the function will be called with the invalid characters and it's
  return value will be used as the replacement. See String.prototype.replace
  for more info.