node/doc/api/path.markdown

Path

This module contains utilities for dealing with file paths. Use require('path') to use it. It provides the following methods:

path.normalize(p)

Normalize a string path, taking care of '..' and '.' parts.

When multiple slashes are found, they're replaces by a single one; when the path contains a trailing slash, it is preserved. On windows backslashes are used.

Example:

path.normalize('/foo/bar//baz/asdf/quux/..')
// returns
'/foo/bar/baz/asdf'

path.join([path1], [path2], [...])

Join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

Example:

node> require('path').join(
...   '/foo', 'bar', 'baz/asdf', 'quux', '..')
'/foo/bar/baz/asdf'

path.resolve([from ...], to)

Resolves to to an absolute path.

If to isn't already absolute from arguments are prepended in right to left order, until an absolute path is found. If after using all from paths still no absolute path is found, the current working directory is used as well. The resulting path is normalized, and trailing slashes are removed unless the path gets resolved to the root directory.

Another way to think of it is as a sequence of cd commands in a shell.

path.resolve('foo/bar', '/tmp/file/', '..', 'a/../subfile')

Is similar to:

cd foo/bar
cd /tmp/file/
cd ..
cd a/../subfile
pwd

The difference is that the different paths don't need to exist and may also be files.

Examples:

path.resolve('/foo/bar', './baz')
// returns
'/foo/bar/baz'

path.resolve('/foo/bar', '/tmp/file/')
// returns
'/tmp/file'

path.resolve('wwwroot', 'static_files/png/', '../gif/image.gif')
// if currently in /home/myself/node, it returns
'/home/myself/node/wwwroot/static_files/gif/image.gif'

path.dirname(p)

Return the directory name of a path. Similar to the Unix dirname command.

Example:

path.dirname('/foo/bar/baz/asdf/quux')
// returns
'/foo/bar/baz/asdf'

path.basename(p, [ext])

Return the last portion of a path. Similar to the Unix basename command.

Example:

path.basename('/foo/bar/baz/asdf/quux.html')
// returns
'quux.html'

path.basename('/foo/bar/baz/asdf/quux.html', '.html')
// returns
'quux'

path.extname(p)

Return the extension of the path. Everything after the last '.' in the last portion of the path. If there is no '.' in the last portion of the path or the only '.' is the first character, then it returns an empty string. Examples:

path.extname('index.html')
// returns
'.html'

path.extname('index')
// returns
''

path.exists(p, [callback])

Test whether or not the given path exists. Then, call the callback argument with either true or false. Example:

path.exists('/etc/passwd', function (exists) {
  util.debug(exists ? "it's there" : "no passwd!");
});