How to Get the Path of Current Script using Node.js ?

In Node JS, getting the path of the current script is useful for file operations, logging, and configuration. It allows you to access related files or directories reliably, regardless of where your Node.js process was started.

Approach

To get the path of the present script in node.js we will be using __dirname for the directory path and __filename scope variables for the full path.

• __dirname: It returns the directory name of the current module in which the current script is located.
• __filename: It returns the file name of the current module. This is the current module file's absolute path with symlinks (symbolic links) resolved.

Let's Consider the below file structure of the project:

Below examples illustrate the use of __dirname and __filename module scope variable in node.js:

Example 1: Determine the path of the present script while executing app.js file.

// Filename -app.js

// Node.js program to demonstrates how to
// get the current path of script

// To get the filename
console.log(`Filename is ${__filename}`);

// To get the directory name
console.log(`Directory name is ${__dirname}`);

Output:

Filename is D:\DemoProject\app.js
Directory name is D:\DemoProject

Example 2: Determine the path of the present script while executing routes\user.js file.

// Filename - user.js

// Node.js program to demonstrates how to
// get the current path of script

// To get the filename
console.log(`Filename is ${__filename}`);

// To get the directory name
console.log(`Directory name is ${__dirname}`);

Output:

Filename is D:\DemoProject\routes\app.js
Directory name is D:\DemoProject\routes

Conclusion

We can get the full path of current script file using __filename and the directory path using __directory variables. These appraches provide an effective way to access the the path of the current script and ensures reliable file and directory handling and consistency across different runtime environments.