Why is require.main.filename different on Azure that it is on my local windows machine?

Question

On my local machine, this code:

var path = require('path');
var appdir = path.dirname(require.main.filename);
console.log(appdir);

will log "c:\sites\mysite"

On Azure, I see this instead: D:\Program Files (x86)\iisnode

I know, from setting the node version to be my own that the path to my app is D:\home\site\wwwroot

And, according to the docs "the entry point of the current application can be obtained by checking require.main.filename."

Any ideas on what could be going wrong?

Answer 1

When you run your application on your local machine you probably execute following command

node.exe your_application.js

That is why require.main.filename returns the entry point of your application.

Please note that when you deploy your application to Windows Azure WebSite you use iisnode - a native IIS 7/8 module that allows hosting of Node.js applications in IIS 7/8. That is why require.main.filename returns D:\Program Files (x86)\iisnode on Windows Azure.

I would recommend using __dirname module local variable (usually combined with path.join() e.g. var mydir = path.join(__dirname, '..')) in order to obtain required directory.

I hope that explains your question.