Nodejs get root directory json file find-up - Find a file by walking up parent directories Oct 20, 2022 · Different methods to find the current directory in Node. Example It is installed globally and uses a bin file to execute. js has no concept of packages (at least in CJS) (note that a package is not the same as a module). js application. That works. It is installed globally and uses a bin file to execute. This can be overridden by setting the $NODE_CONFIG_DIR environment variable to the directory containing your configuration files. js core module, you can find out what directory the JavaScript file or module is loaded into. In this article, we would like to show you how to get the current working directory in Node. 2, last published: 10 years ago. js app’s base folder at runtime using built-in methods or tools like get‑root‑path and app‑root‑path for cleaner imports and config. js Node. But there is a solution: import maps. js path to root package. + Satisfies your requirement of being able to require a component via specific path - Slightly more complex structure, requires extra file for each public Jun 10, 2021 · I have couple of images in images/source directory which is at root level. / to install the package. But what exactly does "current working directory" mean? In simple terms, the current working directory (CWD) is the directory from which you launched your Node. js When the global flag is set, npm installs things into this prefix. Summary: Learn how to determine the project root directory in a running Node. --app/ -- /components -- Loading. path. Quick solution: or: Practical example In this example, we create What is process. com/ points to. meta. Let’s look at __dirname first. cwd ()? The process. js project. If you are using NodeJS and want to get the path not relative, the use the app-root-path module. When TypeScript compiles files, it keeps the same directory structure in the output directory as exists in the input directory. cwd () provides a simple and effective way to handle this, ensuring your code is both robust and easy to understand. I plan to have a command window open at the root directory of the files I am working on and then just run the command however I have been unable to determine the current working directory as process. log(process. Oct 15, 2025 · Find your Node. Apr 22, 2012 · You can simply add the root directory path in the express app variable and get this path from the app. On to your code fs. This is why there is a need for a symlink to simply forward all the commands received as node to nodejs. Apr 23, 2015 · If you want to get the current working directory without resorting to OS specific command line utilities, you can use the "battled-tested" shelljs library that abstract these things for you, while underneath using child processes. js process as a string. json, package. js (with ES Modules), not external resources, the use of __filename and __dirname for most cases can be totally unnecessary. js get all files in directory and subdirectories recursively is through the glob module. Using this Node. js application with TypeScript using “alias” or “relative paths”… Feb 10, 2020 · Can you tell me, suppose server. js, with a focus on the challenges of accessing the current module directory and file paths. cwd() This tutorial will show you how to use both ways. Provides environment and modules information and utilities. js in the root folder that imports an app from the /src folder where everything resides. When i do the above it just append the . js or index. js 12+, offers a cleaner way to import files and works for both require and import (ESM), but for Jan 23, 2023 · Normally all assets like images are kept in one directory, all source code in one (other) directory. . js. There's a good reason why this doesn't work: NodeJS module resolving does not fit the way standard JS needs to work. js So the application name called in the terminal is nodejs and not node. In this article we are going to show you how to loop recursively through a directory to list all its content with When doing a backend express app that never gets build down into some other "build" form. Why do these projects still put everything into a /src folder in the directory that has the package. dirname(__filename). Node Noobie: Where is document root? I installed Node on Ubuntu Where is the directory where I should drop my app files, templates, and such? Should I be using a utility to deploy apps instead of mucking with directories and files manually? NPM perhaps? Apr 1, 2017 · Either to create some kind of file search algorithm or to get a list of all the files and folders inside a directory to compress it with zlib, this feature is often searched for Node. Mar 1, 2022 · ES modules with Node. js / make test etc. cwd () method is an inbuilt application programming interface of the process module which is used to get the current working directory of the node. Example This Node. normalize() (Node. Instead, it is the way NodeJS is installed by default in Ubuntu. Although the previous answers seem to possibly work for others, for me it caused issues as node was looking for a const or a variable but couldn't find one. js We can classify the four main ways of handling a Node. git directory? Jul 12, 2025 · G:\tutorials\nodejs-path-resolve\users\readme. For example, use the following code to serve images, CSS files, and JavaScript files in a directory named public: The Node. Example 1: In the Root Directory Running root directory app. Using process. In most cases, using what is native to Node. Note: This only works until you are at root, so you need to exit when the same path is retried. But with a Node. gif", etc I was hoping this would be a simple thing, but I cannot find anything out there to do so. js® is a free, open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that lets developers create servers, web apps, command line tools and scripts. This is a duplicate of question Determine project root from a running node. js In a. renameSync takes a source first and destination second. On Linux/Mac, the root is obviously / and on Windows it can be C:\ or another drive letter of course. cwd() method returns the Jul 17, 2023 · We will get the path of our current root directory, NODEJS, with the help of __dirname. I'm able to launch node from the shell, as well as npm. js path. config. js) is usually in the root too, along with package. json. js, I have tried the following JavaScript code in my index. For instance, say I'm in Jun 17, 2018 · I wanna create a node package modules, but I have difficulty to require a file from root project directory to use inside my node package module I created. A relative path describes the Jan 1, 2024 · Different methods to get script directory path in Node. I've tried with and without slash, but nothing, same with . PWD is nothing but PWD env variable being set for current working directory (at least on linux. js file. filename. json server. /path"). For example, path. NOTE: NPM honours the path that you've specified through the --prefix option. If the above does not help, kindly read the information below on custom directories with Next. js script at different locations. While parts of paths can be accessed with individual methods like basename, using parse is simpler as it handles everything at once. resolve('C:'). If your current working directory is a node package or a sub-directory of a node package, npm root will tell you the local installation directory. I want output that is an array of filenames. The library is already in use, and currently require d via the local file system. js I want to import b. js is not in the root folder, how can I map to the server. It does not depend on the current working directory. How to get project root directory path for absolute paths for . In other words, the fs module lets you create, edit and delete files and directories. js get script directory according to the path returned. homedir () method is an inbuilt application programming interface of the os module which is used to get path of the home directory for the current user. set('rootDirectory', __dirname); in your index. js Method 1: Use __dirname to get the current directory The __dirname method is the first method to get the current directory path. Mar 20, 2021 · Originally posted here! To get the current user home directory, you can use the homedir () method Tagged with node. Trouble is, it displays the working directory /document/js/ : Mar 10, 2020 · I have created a tool which generates source code files for the projects in the current working directory and I would like to install it globally npm -g mypackage and to store the configuration of this package inside of root folder of each project that uses this tool in . (current directory) and . Node Modules Packages are dropped into the node_modules folder under the prefix. If by root directory, you mean the directory of the root script that Apr 28, 2010 · I'm trying to get a list of the names of all the files present in a directory using Node. 0. js for "root folder", so I don't know what you mean by that. js developers (and the number of downloads and dependent packages on some known modules proves it). js app, with implementations for both ECMAScript Modules (ESM) and CommonJS (CJS). js resolves this OS data depending on your operating system. Start using pkg-dir in your project by running `npm i pkg-dir`. The root folder is the main project folder where the domainame. Jun 28, 2010 · How would I get the path to the script in Node. Does Node implement something like ruby’s property, Rails. In this article we are going to show you how to loop recursively through a directory to list all its content with Jul 14, 2021 · However, when you want to get the root directory of the package, you will find the result of require. Apr 2, 2023 · If your project files is in a sub-directory, kindly set the base directory to the name of the sub-directory. There are 6 other projects in the npm registry using project-root-directory. Feb 2, 2019 · The command root@user:# whereis npm should return the path to your node. Start using app-root-dir in your project by running `npm i app-root-dir`. For example, it returns file paths using a backslash \ on Windows and using a forward slash / on UNIX-based systems. cwd() Parameters: This method does not accept any parameters. js (server main) +modulos (folder where rutas. Sep 20, 2018 · What does "home is set to be the root folder. mjs. That being said, why bother? You should just require dotenv in any file you need to access the environment variables. /config directory for the running process, typically the application root. dirname () method of path module is a helper method to get the parent directory for a specified path. js solution—no need to rely on additional packages. In simple projects like ours, our main app file (like server. js, managing file and directory paths can sometimes be cumbersome, especially when dealing with relative paths. Aug 26, 2019 · How do I get the project root path in node js? Jacob Wilson 26. js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment. cwd() method is a built-in function in Node. as process. js program uses paths in a variety Mar 1, 2013 · I have some project, and I run it with node main. The import mapping is available starting from Node. js is a powerful tool for constructing absolute paths from relative path segments. js process. js looks at the root of the project directory - so we’re here to change that. js command prompt in your Start menu or start screen: Which will open a command prompt window that looks like this: From there you can switch directories using the cd command. Feb 2, 2024 · Implement effective strategies to dynamically determine project root from a running Node JS application. These improvements have significantly Feb 9, 2016 · Create entry files for the components in your root You can create separate files for each of the component you would like to expose as part of you public API in your module's root folder. Thanks for the assumption of the root directory, however I can't still import a file relative to its root, as TypeScript continues saying that the import module doesn't exist/can't be found. You can get the equivalent using the method you show in test2. This comprehensive guide covers CommonJS, web browsers, ESM in Node. js file which is located in / (the root of the directory). As an example, here’s how you might use it: path. If composite is set, the default is instead the directory containing the tsconfig. +root. Latest version: 9. So you mean "home" is the current directory in your app? Or, do you mean it's the module directory? I'd suggest you do console. cwd, but that only refers to the directory where the script was called, not of the script itself. For example, if you ran it from x. It covers the frustrations I encountered with the old, cumbersome workaround and the relief brought by the introduction of import. join () function for joining the path of the current directory and the path of a folder called files by writing path. and btw, path. Else, use the directory of app-root-dir module as the application root directory. json file, and that's basically the directory containing the nearest node_modules folder, there is exactly one way "to get the pathname of the current project's root-directory": copy On Windows Node. Nov 30, 2021 · Get the caller's directory root from a node. 08. Jul 5, 2024 · The Path module is a built-in module in NodeJS that simplifies working with file paths. , which represents the current working directory. I want to read all the images in the folder and get its path to something like below: Oct 18, 2019 · Now I want to get the root directory of awesome-package, so I can basically fs. path. js __dirname (the directory of the script file): /tmp/myapp process. js command prompt window. Note JavaScript is synchronous by default and is single threaded. find the project root. So for example: <MyFolder May 3, 2023 · What do you mean by "root directory"? __dirname was ALWAYS the directory that the currently executing script is located in. Feb 18, 2021 · By default, that’s not the case and Node. Your example doesn't show absolute paths, as they are supported already, but "bare" paths) to a file/folder and this is probably what you're looking for. This allows you to map bare imports (btw. That is a language shell to run JavaScript commands, also known as a REPL. js instead of node something. /. html Find out how to get the current folder or directory path where a Javascript code is executed in Node. js from the root directory, we get: $ cd /tmp/myapp $ node app. That may or may not be where your particular module was loaded from. What I need is to get this directory from a script. js -- index. / to get back out of the server directory and into the root directory to access the file you're exporting from. js - Find home directory in platform agnostic way Asked 13 years, 9 months ago Modified 3 years, 5 months ago Viewed 172k times I'm currently playing around with React Native. resolve could vary based on different packages’ configurations. And is this ‘vanilla’ JavaScript only? (I believe if you are using Node. In this article, you will explore how to implement __dirname in your Node. not sure about windows though. After that, we used the path. hg) via hg root Is there something equivalent in git to get the directory that contains the . Sep 2, 2023 · In this blog post, we will explore different ways to determine the project root directory and provide you with easy solutions to ensure constant and reliable results. cwd() will return the root path for the file that initiated the running process (so, as example a /Myuser/myproject/server. js, when using module. node-get-app-root-path Gets a node application or workspace root path. js Let’s see what output we get when we run the app. \). So if you do chdir (__dirname) from that file, you have changed your current directory to your root directory – Pascal Belloncle CommentedJan 26, 2013 at 19:47 2 NOTE: The parent directory of the first node_modules directory in the path is used if the app-root-dir module is installed as a submodule of another module. cwd()) and console. This command plays a crucial role in managing dependencies as it provides direct insights into the folder structure, helping developers seamlessly navigate and manage their projects. md Conclusion The path. js shouldn't be giving any special treatment to it. Jan 25, 2013 · the value of __dirname in the file in the root of your app is the value of your root dir. json is always located at the root of the package. js to identify what the root directory of the filesystem is. js inside a folder in the main server, like this. js is reducing friction when using ES modules by making it easier to get the current module directory name Node Noobie: Where is document root? I installed Node on Ubuntu Where is the directory where I should drop my app files, templates, and such? Should I be using a utility to deploy apps instead of mucking with directories and files manually? NPM perhaps? Apr 1, 2017 · Either to create some kind of file search algorithm or to get a list of all the files and folders inside a directory to compress it with zlib, this feature is often searched for Node. split(path. I'm not Mar 18, 2024 · Understanding the root directory as the one containing the package. May 18, 2015 · My question concerns an existing library that I wish to publish as an NPM module. By handling complex path scenarios and providing cross-platform consistency, it simplifies file path management in Node. cmd I need to provide the full path to a number of these global tools to PyCharm's file watcher, and since the project file i shared it would make sense to not have global resources under a user folder. js is) ++rutas. Latest version: 1. js no matter where it is located? Aug 23, 2024 · This article walks you through my experience transitioning from CommonJS to ES Modules in Node. static. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets. resolve('C:\\') can potentially return a different result than path. resolve(id)); doesn't solve the issue either, since the JS file used by require() might not be stored directly in the root of path_to/node_modules/module. /install/here" directory. With join, meanwhile, we combine a directory with a filename. js or app. Dec 17, 2024 · The npm root command is a simple yet powerful tool provided by npm (Node Package Manager) that allows developers to easily locate the directory where dependencies are installed. js in folder y, you'd get something like this: blah/bla Jul 12, 2025 · The process. 2 days ago · Whether you’re a developer setting up a new environment or a hobbyist trying to run a Node. js returns /Myuser/myproject/). join (__dirname, ‘files’). Why would the global installs end up in different folders, and how can I force them to a location that May 8, 2011 · The command npm root will tell you the effective installation directory of your npm packages. This behavior can be observed when using a drive path without a backslash. The process. 2019 Popular questions Table of Contents [hide] 1 How do I get the project root path in node js? 2 How do I find my home directory in node js? 3 Where do I find the root path of a npm package? 4 Which is the root directory in NodeJS Express? Apr 9, 2014 · Node. js for eg that you can use the Path module to get the full path of the application https://nodejs. I'd like new executables to be installed in C:\\ 6 days ago · Place this file in the root directory of your Node. I'm trying to structure my app, however it's starting to get messy with imports. Return Value: This method returns a string specifies the path of the home directory for the current user. It offers various functions to handle file system paths effectively. On windows, It collects its value from an environment Jan 16, 2021 · OK, in Node. normpath() (Python) or path. ) We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. basename(path[, suffix]) # History May 26, 2018 · __dirname This points to the root of my package itself though. It returns something like this: /usr/bin/npm Aug 11, 2018 · NodeJS can be confusing when accessing the filesystem via relative paths. exports you'd use: __dirname To obtain the location of the current file. But, it still works. js", "images/icon. npm root -g will show the global installation root regardless of current working directory. I tried with path plugin rootDir Default: The longest common path of all non-declaration input files. dirname() on a directory to get the parent directory. js - b. com > Javascript > How to get Base URL or Root URL using Javascript Posted on June 29, 2016 The most literal answer to your question Is there any way to access the Linux root ('/') directory through node? Is yes, by using /. May 7, 2022 · Is there a different way, other than process. Contribute to inxilpro/node-app-root-path development by creating an account on GitHub. Feb 1, 2025 · Hey there! 👋 If you’re looking to build a scalable and maintainable Node. Your solution would give path for current working directory only. Start using project-root-directory in your project by running `npm i project-root-directory`. When it is not set, it uses the root of the current package, or the current working directory if not in a package already. Steps to create Folder Structure Step 1: Open the terminal and go to the path where you want @ChristianFritz , The Op question is to find absolute base path of 'project' directory not current working directory. The root argument specifies the root directory from which to serve static assets. 🕵️♂️ File System String path docs: String form paths are interpreted as UTF-8 character sequences identifying the absolute or relative filename. This simple module helps you access your application's root path from anywhere in the application without resorting to relative paths like require(". Node. There are 3299 other projects in the npm registry using pkg-dir. js at first. cwd() is returning the directory of the node package. Sep 22, 2024 · An absolute path provides the complete address to a file or directory, starting from the root of the file system. org/api/path. How can I do this? Jun 29, 2016 · How to get Base URL or Root URL using Javascript WebTechRiser. Jul 6, 2015 · That isn't the Node. It can be different from different scripts all being used in the same program as __dirname is a script-specific variable. cwd (), to get the pathname of the current project’s root-directory. js application using various techniques and best practices to ensure reliable pa Jul 3, 2019 · Does NodeJs uses "root directory"? like apache? I know that you can extend or change the defaults also in apache and other servers, but - are tere any conventions with nodeJS? Nov 9, 2013 · In my windows installation PATH includes C:\\Program Files\\nodejs, where executable node. For more information, see this MSDN page. js, package-lock. Sep 10, 2024 · When working with Node. Apr 5, 2024 · A step-by-step guide on how to list all directories in a directory in Node. cwd() (the directory from which the script file was called Jul 10, 2022 · You said it is in the root directory, so likely you are not using the right path. In nodejs this is easy when you know the trick! The trick is to use path. Understanding where your node Apr 21, 2016 · In NodeJS Express module, specifying path "/" will catch multiple HTTP requests like "/", "lib/main. Determine the root path to your project. js Nodejs get current directory is mainly possible through the __dirname variable May 3, 2022 · As you asked, this is the directory where the root script that started the whole nodejs program is located. json, readme. js +shalimar (folder wher Jul 1, 2022 · how do we serve a static file located in the root of the directory (/) and not in a folder of it? I am using Node. js applications. For example, let’s say you have some input files: Oct 13, 2021 · The os. I just want to get all folders/directories within a given folder/directory. Hono was not designed for Node. js documentation The fs module provides a lot of very useful functionality to access and interact with the file system. Here is an overview of various ways of accessing the filesystem, and a simple solution to reliably load files anywhere in your project. md, etc. There will need to be at least one . Return Value: This method returns a string specifying the current working directory of the node. js, server. (parent directory) before extraction. This method can be useful when you need to determine which folder an application or script is running from, or if you want to find out where in your file system a certain file reside Node-config reads configuration files in the . js fs module? According to the official node. My question is whether or not there is a way for Node. js add a new, standardized global that allows your code to run anywhere, locally or remotely. js and npm working correctly. resolve () method in Node. js Dive into the methods of resolving relative file paths across different JavaScript environments. js follows the concept of per-drive working directory. Root is a directory just like any other. Sep 24, 2022 · The simplest way to achieve a Node. json in current directory to ". You are renaming a file to . js installation. js Adapter it can run on Node. js project, this guide will demystify the root causes of the issue and walk you through step-by-step solutions to get Node. json file, and that's basically the directory containing the nearest node_modules folder, there is exactly one way "to get the pathname of the current project's root-directory": async function getPkgJsonDir () { const { dirname } = require ( 'path' ); Simple module to infer the root directory of the currently running node application. log(__dirname) from the place you want to read that file and that should then tell us what you Mercurial has a way of printing the root directory (that contains . When running a Node application in Ubuntu you have to run nodejs something. Oct 17, 2024 · Helper function to locate the project root path in a Node. js'; but not using relative path like th Here is the code i am using and i cannot seems to go 1 level back in the folder directory . Fortunately, process. " mean? There is no setting in node. There is one thing that I have noticed on Mac that it creates a symlink to parent folder inside the node_modules directory. Contribute to grimen/node-rootpath development by creating an account on GitHub. This can be done with the path module. js as well. json file. There are multiple files and folders, for example, api, config, models, services, subscribers, app. exe is. Then store the path of the files folder in the constant dirPath. js? I know there's process. 18 hours ago · Normalize Paths First: Use os. ios. Nov 23, 2017 · I am trying to create a module for routing in Node. js project or npm package. Jul 23, 2025 · Folder Structure Overview: Node project folder structure Folder structure contains the files and folders that are present in the directory. 3, last published: 5 years ago. Is there a standard way to achieve this? package-directory-cli - CLI for this package package-up - Find the closest package. js comes with the os core module allowing you to retrieve data from the operating system (OS). For this add app. js package Asked 3 years, 5 months ago Modified 3 years, 5 months ago Viewed 3k times Mar 11, 2012 · 20 I'm doing a basic operation where I start from a given directory, and I traverse up the filesystem until I hit the root. For more information on the options argument, see express. env. I would like to get the root of the project which actually performed the npm install of my package though. /install/here . js) to resolve . In Windows, there should be a Node. Apr 13, 2021 · Sometimes, you need to get a string representing the current directory or folder your JavaScript code is being executed. js project/package root path detection. Mar 18, 2024 · Understanding the root directory as the one containing the package. pop() so now you get the directory name of the current directory you are in and not the full path. js, we often need to manipulate paths in order to read or write files. It lets you always get your project root and then dig into to files accordingly. Syntax: os. sep). json file, so that when I run command from root folder, like npm start it will execute server. Mar 21, 2023 · Question: How to import JavaScript files in NodeJS using file paths from project root? (instead of relative file paths) In other words, my team is trying to transition from Syntax Style A to Syntax Node. root,. json? I've even seen code that launches from an index. Mar 21, 2024 · Node. Obviously, I could simply go up from the node_modules directory and assume that the root directory is there but this sounds really bad. Jul 18, 2022 · 2 ways you can get current directory details in Node. readFileSync something from another-package How can I get the root directory of a script? Dec 26, 2023 · Path When developing programs in Node. js files in Vercel? Nov 20, 2015 · (dev) go|w:\srv> which lessc c:\program files\nodejs\lessc c:\program files\nodejs\lessc. Jul 12, 2018 · Unless CJS has a way to designate "not the root of the package" as the root dir for resolution, I don't think it would be appropriate for ESM (or WASM, or any other future module type) to have that capability. On that question, the __dirname answer got the proper whipping it deserves. A trick for this is to resolve the package. For example, consider this directory structure for the scenarios below: my-project package. There are 306 other projects in the npm registry using app-root-dir. Jan 28, 2022 · What is Node. Oct 12, 2014 · The issue is not with the version of node. If I have directory structure like this - Dec 6, 2021 · Introduction __dirname is an environment variable that tells you the absolute path of the directory containing the currently executing file. How can I specify the root directory of my module's files? If I have a structure like: Jun 7, 2015 · I run a server via node's http-server module. Mar 23, 2023 · app. Find the root directory of a Node. Syntax: process. There are two ways you can get the current directory in NodeJS: Using the special variable __dirname Using the built-in method process. dirname and import. Any ideas how to get that path_to/node_modules/module programmatically in nodejs? Aug 22, 2024 · If you've ever struggled with requiring/importing files using long, nested relative paths, you're in the right place. json instead, as the package. homedir() Parameters: This method does not accept any parameters. Nov 23, 2016 · The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered: ORESoftware changed the title Get home directory if user is root Get "home" directory if user is root on Nov 23, 2016 Member Apr 1, 2020 · A short article to learn how to get the current working directory in a Node. \ to the folder direcotry without going 1 level back (which is the usual use of . js with Express. In this article, I'll show a method for importing files using standard Node. Why would the global installs end up in different folders, and how can I force them to a location that Jun 23, 2025 · The getRootNode() method of the Node interface returns the context object's root, which optionally includes the shadow root if it is available. Jan 28, 2024 · You have the path of the currently open file, but need to find a file in any parent directory. js in multiple ways, including recursively. js that returns the current working directory of the Node. js, but also from any submodule. Jan 22, 2013 · npm install --prefix . 0, last published: 3 days ago. Here’s a breakdown of some Dec 17, 2020 · How to print or get the root project folder path while coding in express JS. Not only from main. Oct 15, 2021 · This is our project structure: - project - a. js file using root path in the way like this: import c from '~/b. Handle Edge Cases Explicitly: Check for root paths, empty strings, and invalid paths to avoid unexpected behavior. May 13, 2021 · Get the User’s Home Directory Path Node. dirname(require. Mar 25, 2025 · Get root path of node. js, Deno, and bundler setups, ensuring your scripts always find their way.