Question

I’m trying to create a node.js server on a fresh version of Ubuntu 11.04 64 bits.
I have access remotely to the system as it is a virtual server from an external provider.

I created two folders in the “/home” directory: “server” and “http”.
I installed node.js (v0.79-pre) in the “server” folder and then installed “npm” (1.1.18).
Like this:

sudo apt-get install git-core curl build-essential openssl libssl-dev
git clone https://github.com/joyent/node.git && cd node
./configure
make
sudo make install
curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sudo sh

When done, I created a file called “server.js” in the “http” folder, like this:

var http = require(‘http’);
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {‘Content-Type’: ‘text/html’});
res.write(‘It works‘);
res.end();
}).listen(8080);
console.log(‘Serveur tourne sur http://xxxxx:8080/’);

When done, I place myself on the http folder, like this:

cd /home/http

And finaly, start the server, like this:

node server.js

This is what I get:

/home/http/server.js:1
require(‘http’);
    ^

node.js:256
    throw e; // process.nextTick error, or 'error' event on first tick
          ^
SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGAL
   at Module._compile (module.js:432:25)
   at Object..js (module.js:462:10)
   at Module.load (module.js:351:32)
   at Function._load (module.js:309:12)
   at module.js:482:10
   at EventEmitter._tickCallback (node.js:245:11)

What Am i doing wrong?

Please keep in mind that I’m discovering the use of the shell and that I’ve never messed up with a server before.

Thank you.

Answer 1

You’re using the wrong quotes everywhere. For example, require(‘http’); should be either require('http'); or require("http");.