Node.js url.parse() and pathname property

Question

I'm reading a getting started book on node.js called The Node Beginner Book and in the code below (given in the book) I don't understand the significance of the pathname property hanging off the parse method. So I would like to know what it is doing. The documentation for this method is not clear to me

var pathname = url.parse(request.url)**.pathname;**   var http = require("http"); var url = require("url"); function start(route, handle) { function onRequest(request, response) {     var pathname = url.parse(request.url).pathname;         // I don't understand the pathname property     console.log("Request for " + pathname + " received.");     route(handle, pathname);     response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});     response.write("Hello World");     response.end(); } 

Answer 1

pathname is the path section of the URL, that comes after the host and before the query, including the initial slash if present.

For example:

url.parse('http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17184791').pathname     

will give you:

"/questions/17184791"