How do I get the path to the current script with Node.js?

Question

How would I get the path to the script in Node.js?

I know there's process.cwd, but that only refers to the directory where the script was called, not of the script itself. For instance, say I'm in /home/kyle/ and I run the following command:

node /home/kyle/some/dir/file.js 

If I call process.cwd(), I get /home/kyle/, not /home/kyle/some/dir/. Is there a way to get that directory?

Answer 1

I found it after looking through the documentation again. What I was looking for were the __filename and __dirname module-level variables.

• __filename is the file name of the current module. This is the resolved absolute path of the current module file. (ex:/home/kyle/some/dir/file.js)
• __dirname is the directory name of the current module. (ex:/home/kyle/some/dir)

Answer 2

So basically you can do this:

fs.readFile(path.resolve(__dirname, 'settings.json'), 'UTF-8', callback); 

Use resolve() instead of concatenating with '/' or '\' else you will run into cross-platform issues.

Note: __dirname is the local path of the module or included script. If you are writing a plugin which needs to know the path of the main script it is:

require.main.filename 

or, to just get the folder name:

require('path').dirname(require.main.filename)