Question

How do I run a nodejs file using ./foo.js instead of node foo.js from the terminal? Running it with node works fine, but with the ./ I get bash: ./foo.js: Permission denied.

I’m new to Ubuntu, so I’m not sure if its an OS tweak.

Answer 1

Make sure the file is executable. You can check this by doing a “ls -la”:

$ ls -la foo.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 daniel daniel 0 Oct 15 21:53 foo.js

The lack of an “x” means that it’s not executable. To make it executable, use chmod +x:

$ chmod +x foo.js
$ ls -la foo.js
-rwxr-xr-x 1 daniel daniel 0 Oct 15 21:53 foo.js

Also make sure you have a “shebang” line at the very top of the file. This tells the shell what interpreter to use for the file:

#!/usr/bin/env node