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Global Objects

These objects are available in all modules. Some of these objects aren't actually in the global scope but in the module scope - this will be noted.

global

{Object} The global namespace object.

In browsers, the top-level scope is the global scope. That means that in browsers if you're in the global scope var something will define a global variable. In Node this is different. The top-level scope is not the global scope; var something inside a Node module will be local to that module.

process

{Object}

The process object. See the process object section.

console

{Object}

Used to print to stdout and stderr. See the stdio section.

Class: Buffer

{Function}

Used to handle binary data. See the buffer section

require()

{Function}

To require modules. See the Modules section. require isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

require.resolve()

Use the internal require() machinery to look up the location of a module, but rather than loading the module, just return the resolved filename.

require.cache

{Object}

Modules are cached in this object when they are required. By deleting a key value from this object, the next require will reload the module.

require.extensions

{Array}

Instruct require on how to handle certain file extensions.

Process files with the extension .sjs as .js:

require.extensions['.sjs'] = require.extensions['.js'];

Write your own extension handler:

require.extensions['.sjs'] = function(module, filename) {
  var content = fs.readFileSync(filename, 'utf8');
  // Parse the file content and give to module.exports
  module.exports = content;
};

__filename

{String}

The filename of the code being executed. This is the resolved absolute path of this code file. For a main program this is not necessarily the same filename used in the command line. The value inside a module is the path to that module file.

Example: running node example.js from /Users/mjr

console.log(__filename);
// /Users/mjr/example.js

__filename isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

__dirname

{String}

The name of the directory that the currently executing script resides in.

Example: running node example.js from /Users/mjr

console.log(__dirname);
// /Users/mjr

__dirname isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

module

{Object}

A reference to the current module. In particular module.exports is the same as the exports object. module isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

See the module system documentation for more information.

exports

An object which is shared between all instances of the current module and made accessible through require(). exports is the same as the module.exports object. exports isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.