CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.js
peter
peter

Reputation: 15119

What is the difference between require(__dirname + path) and require(./path)

According to this question: What is the difference between __dirname and ./ in node.js? these 2 lines should be the same:

require(__dirname + '/folder/file.js');
require('./folder/file.js');

and I always used to use the second option. But now a project, I took over, the previous developer used require(__dirname + ...) every time.

Personally I thinks it's harder to read and I'd like to change it, but maybe there is some advantage of this syntax I'm missing? Or is it the preferred version and I was doing it wrong all the time?

Just in case it matters, the libraries run sometimes on node.js with es6 enabled and sometimes on io.js (without additional flags).

Upvotes: 1

Views: 647

Answers (1)

Matt Harrison
Matt Harrison

Reputation: 13577

When using require() there is no difference, using __dirname is kind of redundant. The module loader will take care of the resolving the path correctly for you.

When using one of the fs methods like fs.readFile there is a difference if your current working directory is not equal to __dirname. If I want to read contents of a file called file.txt in the same directory as my script, I do:

var Fs = require('fs');
var Path = require('path');

Fs.readFile(Path.join(__dirname, 'file.txt'), ...);

Then it doesn't matter what my cwd is when I start the node process that executes this code.

Upvotes: 3

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