What s the difference between process cwd vs dirname

Question

What s the difference between  console log process cwd      and  console log   dirname     I ve seen both used in similar contexts

User · Accepted Answer

process cwd   returns the current working directory   i e  the directory from which you invoked the node command     dirname returns the directory name of the directory containing the JavaScript source code file

User · Answer

Knowing the scope of each can make things easier to remember   process is node s global object  and  cwd   returns where node is running     dirname is module s property  and represents the file path of the module  In node  one module resides in one file   Similarly    filename is another module s property  which holds the file name of the module

User · Answer

find proj  proj proj src proj src index js     cat proj src index js  console log  process cwd         process cwd     console log    dirname         dirname       cd proj  node src index js  process cwd      tmp proj   dirname    tmp proj src

User · Answer

As per node js doc process cwd    cwd is a method of global object process  returns a string value which is the current working directory of the Node js process   As per node js doc   dirname  The directory name of current script as a string value    dirname is not actually a global but rather local to each module   Let me explain with example   suppose we have a main js file resides inside C  Project main js and running node main js both these values return same file  or simply with following folder structure  Project   -- main js  --lib     -- script js   main js  console log process cwd       C  Project console log   dirname     C  Project console log   dirname   process cwd       true   suppose we have another file script js files inside a sub directory of project  ie C  Project lib script js and running node main js which require script js  main js  require    lib script js   console log process cwd       C  Project console log   dirname     C  Project console log   dirname   process cwd       true   script js  console log process cwd       C  Project console log   dirname     C  Project lib console log   dirname   process cwd       false

[node.js] What's the difference between process.cwd() vs __dirname?

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