|                                                                           |  | # flat-cache
> A stupidly simple key/value storage using files to persist the data
[](https://npmjs.org/package/flat-cache)[](https://github.com/jaredwray/flat-cache/actions/workflows/tests.yaml)[](https://codecov.io/github/jaredwray/flat-cache)[](https://npmjs.com/package/flat-cache)
## install
```bashnpm i --save flat-cache```
## Usage
```jsvar flatCache = require('flat-cache')// loads the cache, if one does not exists for the given// Id a new one will be prepared to be createdvar cache = flatCache.load('cacheId');
// sets a key on the cachecache.setKey('key', { foo: 'var' });
// get a key from the cachecache.getKey('key') // { foo: 'var' }
// fetch the entire persisted objectcache.all() // { 'key': { foo: 'var' } }
// remove a keycache.removeKey('key'); // removes a key from the cache
// save it to diskcache.save(); // very important, if you don't save no changes will be persisted.// cache.save( true /* noPrune */) // can be used to prevent the removal of non visited keys
// loads the cache from a given directory, if one does// not exists for the given Id a new one will be prepared to be createdvar cache = flatCache.load('cacheId', path.resolve('./path/to/folder'));
// The following methods are useful to clear the cache// delete a given cacheflatCache.clearCacheById('cacheId') // removes the cacheId document if one exists.
// delete all cacheflatCache.clearAll(); // remove the cache directory```
## Motivation for this module
I needed a super simple and dumb **in-memory cache** with optional disk persistance in order to makea script that will beutify files with `esformatter` only execute on the files that were changed since the last run.To make that possible we need to store the `fileSize` and `modificationTime` of the files. So a simple `key/value`storage was needed and Bam! this module was born.
## Important notes
- If no directory is especified when the `load` method is called, a folder named `.cache` will be created  inside the module directory when `cache.save` is called. If you're committing your `node_modules` to any vcs, you  might want to ignore the default `.cache` folder, or specify a custom directory.- The values set on the keys of the cache should be `stringify-able` ones, meaning no circular references- All the changes to the cache state are done to memory- I could have used a timer or `Object.observe` to deliver the changes to disk, but I wanted to keep this module  intentionally dumb and simple- Non visited keys are removed when `cache.save()` is called. If this is not desired, you can pass `true` to the save call  like: `cache.save( true /* noPrune */ )`.
## License
MIT
## Changelog
[changelog](./changelog.md)
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