node/doc/api/globals.markdown

Global Objects

These object are available in the global scope and can be accessed from anywhere.

global

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

The process object. See the 'process object' section.

require()

To require modules. See the 'Modules' section.

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.paths

An array of search paths for require(). This array can be modified to add custom paths.

Example: add a new path to the beginning of the search list

require.paths.unshift('/usr/local/node');

__filename

The filename of the script being executed. This is the absolute path, and not necessarily the same filename passed in as a command line argument.

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

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

__dirname

The dirname of the script being executed.

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

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

module

A reference to the current module. In particular module.exports is the same as the exports object. See src/node.js for more information.