Question

I am creating a node command line interface. It is installed globally and uses a bin file to execute.

I plan to have a command window open at the root directory of the files I am working on and then just run the command however I have been unable to determine the current working directory as process.cwd() is returning the directory of the node package. I initially assumed that since the code is being executed using a batch file as a wrapper (that is how bin files can execute without node at the beginning) then it is impossible but coffee-script manages to do it. I took a look at the coffee-script source but couldn’t follow it (not experienced enough).

To test it for yourself create a package with this package.json file:

{
  "name": "test-package",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "bin": {
    "test-package":  "./bin/test-package"
  },
  "main": "/lib/test"
}

this test-package file in bin:

#!/usr/bin/env node

var path = require('path');
var fs   = require('fs');
var lib  = path.join(path.dirname(fs.realpathSync(__filename)), '../lib');

require(lib + '/test');

Could anyone shed some light onto this.

and then try and get the command line directory inside lib/test.

Answer 1

• process.cwd() returns directory where command has been executed (not directory of the node package) if it’s has not been changed by ‘process.chdir’ inside of application.
• __filename returns absolute path to file where it is placed.
• __dirname returns absolute path to directory of __filename.

If you need to load files from your module directory you need to use relative paths.

require('../lib/test');

instead of

var lib  = path.join(path.dirname(fs.realpathSync(__filename)), '../lib');

require(lib + '/test');

It’s always relative to file where it called from and don’t depend on current work dir.