Why is __dirname not defined in node REPL?

Question

From the node manual I see that I can get the directory of a file with __dirname, but from the REPL this seems to be undefined. Is this a misunderstanding on my

Answer 1

In ES6 use:

import path from 'path';
const __dirname = path.resolve();

also available when node is called with --experimental-modules

Answer 2

Seems like you could also do this:

__dirname=fs.realpathSync('.');

of course, dont forget fs=require('fs')

(it's not really global in node scripts exactly, its just defined on the module level)

Answer 3

Building on the existing answers here, you could define this in your REPL:

__dirname = path.resolve(path.dirname(''));

Or:

__dirname = path.resolve();

If no path segments are passed, path.resolve() will return the absolute path of the current working directory.

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Or @Jthorpe's alternatives:

__dirname = process.cwd();
__dirname = fs.realpathSync('.');
__dirname = process.env.PWD

Answer 4

sometimes we make a file with .js extension and add consol.log(_dirname); but we face errors, we are in a hurry, so we forget to add one more underscore before the "dirname" so we face reference error.correct syntax is consol.log(__dirname);

Answer 5

I was also trying to join my path using path.join(__dirname, 'access.log') but it was throwing the same error.

Here is how I fixed it:

I first imported the path package and declared a variable named __dirname, then called the resolve path method.

In CommonJS

var path = require("path");

var __dirname = path.resolve();

In ES6+

import path  from 'path';

const __dirname = path.resolve();

Happy coding.......