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nodejs/doc/api/globals.markdown
Thomas Shinnick 4cf0ce5bb4 docs: typos and minor edits in several modules
Mostly quite minor edits.  Those possibly of more interest are:

  emitter.setMaxListeners(n)

    That the limit is per event name for an emitter.

  fs.readlink()

    Not a path, but rather the symbolic link's string value, which
      would be at best a partial path, certainly not a 'resolvedPath'

  global.__filename

    This may be "well-known" but this is a full path to the module
    that referencing code is running in.  It is not the main program's
    path, unless you are in the main program.  Each module knows only
    its own path.

  server.listen(port,...)

    I actually needed this functionality... "gimme just _any_ next port"

  stream.end()
  stream.destroy()

    Yeah, everybody knows what happens to the queued data, but let's
    make it *really* explicit for the first readers.
2011-09-06 18:19:41 +02:00

2.6 KiB

Global Objects

These objects are available in all modules. Some of these objects aren't actually in the global scope but in the module scope - this will be noted.

global

The global namespace object.

In browsers, the top-level scope is the global scope. That means that in browsers if you're in the global scope var something will define a global variable. In Node this is different. The top-level scope is not the global scope; var something inside a Node module will be local to that module.

process

The process object. See the process object section.

console

Used to print to stdout and stderr. See the stdio section.

Buffer

Used to handle binary data. See the buffers section.

require()

To require modules. See the Modules section. require isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

require.resolve()

Use the internal require() machinery to look up the location of a module, but rather than loading the module, just return the resolved filename.

require.cache

Modules are cached in this object when they are required. By deleting a key value from this object, the next require will reload the module.

__filename

The filename of the code being executed. This is the resolved absolute path of this code file. For a main program this is not necessarily the same filename used in the command line. The value inside a module is the path to that module file.

Example: running node example.js from /Users/mjr

console.log(__filename);
// /Users/mjr/example.js

__filename isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

__dirname

The name of the directory that the currently executing script resides in.

Example: running node example.js from /Users/mjr

console.log(__dirname);
// /Users/mjr

__dirname isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

module

A reference to the current module. In particular module.exports is the same as the exports object. See src/node.js for more information. module isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

exports

An object which is shared between all instances of the current module and made accessible through require(). exports is the same as the module.exports object. See src/node.js for more information. exports isn't actually a global but rather local to each module.

setTimeout(cb, ms)

clearTimeout(t)

setInterval(cb, ms)

clearInterval(t)

The timer functions are global variables. See the timers section.