Webpack nodejs fs.readFile is not a function

Question

I have a webpack config like:

var path = require('path')

module.exports = {
    entry: "./index.js",
    output: {
        path: path.join(__dirname, 'static'),
        filename:'bundle.js'
    },
    module: {
        loaders: [
            { test: /\.js$/, exclude: /node_modules/, loader: "babel-loader"},
            { test: /\.json$/, loader: 'json-loader' },
        ]
    },
    node: {
      fs: "empty"
    }
};

And I want to read a file using fs

I am doing something like:

var fs = require('fs')
console.log(fs)

fs.readFile('input.txt', function (err, buffer) {
        console.log("buffer")
        console.log(buffer)


    })

I just want to read a file here but when I do this it gives me error saying:

fs.readFile is not a function

I have installed fs using npm install --save fs

Also when I print fs it gives me empty object. Above I have done console.log(fs) it is giving me empty object

What is wrong in here?

Solution

As I believe the comments mentioned,

node: { fs: "empty" }

Needs to be removed. Moreover, all your code must run on the server. You cannot read files like this in the browser. Node APIs are server-side only, so you would need to build an API using express or some similar library e.g.

    router.get('/file/read', (req, res, next) => { fs.readFile('input.txt', function (err, buffer) {
            console.log("buffer")
            res.send(buffer);
        }) 
    })

Then in your browser you would need to use AJAX to call the API and retrieve the file contents.

Reading arbitrary files has OBVIOUS SECURITY ISSUES . You should not allow the api to read any files the user likes. You should be very careful here to restict input and limit the set of files available.