description: Hugo's `readDir` and `readFile` functions make it easy to traverse your project's directory structure and write file contents to your templates.
The [`readDir` function][readDir] returns an array of [`os.FileInfo`][osfileinfo]. It takes the file's `path` as a single string argument. This path can be to any directory of your website (i.e., as found on your server's file system).
Whether the path is absolute or relative does not matter because---at least for `readDir`---the root of your website (typically `./public/`) in effect becomes both:
1. The file system root
2. The current working directory
### `readDir` Example: List Directory Files
This shortcode creates a link to each of the files in a directory---display as the file's basename---along with the file's size in bytes.
The [`readfile` function][readFile] reads a file from disk and converts it into a string to be manipulated by other Hugo functions or added as-is. `readFile` takes the file, including path, as an argument passed to the function.
### `readFile` Example: Add a Project File to Content
As `readFile` is a function, it is only available to you in your templates and not your content. However, we can create a simple [shortcode template][sct] that calls `readFile`, passes the first argument through the function, and then allows an optional second argument to send the file through the Blackfriday markdown processor. The pattern for adding this shortcode to your content will be as follows:
If you are going to create [custom shortcodes](/templates/shortcode-templates/) with `readFile` for a theme, note that usage of the shortcode will refer to the project root and *not* your `themes` directory.
{{% /warning %}}
Here is the templating for our new `readfile` shortcode:
This `readfile` shortcode is [also part of the Hugo docs][readfilesource]. So is [`testing.txt`][testfile], which we will call in this example by passing it into our new `readfile` shortcode as follows:
