While I love Node.js, I've found myself missing some functions. Things like recursively deleting/chmodding a directory (or even deep copying a directory) shouldn't need to be re-invented time and time again.
That said, here's my attempt at a re-usable solution, at least until something more formalized gets integrated into Node.js (hint hint). wrench.js is fairly simple to use - check out the documentation/examples below:
npm install wrench
var wrench = require("./wrench");
// Recursively delete the entire sub-tree of a directory, then kill the directory
wrench.rmdirSyncRecursive("my_directory_name");
// Recursively chmod the entire sub-tree of a directory
wrench.chmodSyncRecursive("my_directory_name", 0755);
// Deep-copy an existing directory
wrench.copyDirSyncRecursive("directory_to_copy", "location_where_copy_should_end_up");
It should be noted that these are all currently synchronous operations. I'll be adding asynchronous versions of chmod/copy in the near future, but rmdir is one that really can't exist in an asynchronous fashion.
Questions, comments? Hit me up. (ryan [at] venodesigns.net | http://twitter.com/ryanmcgrath)