[javascript] NodeJS: How to get the server's port?

You often see example hello world code for Node that creates an Http Server, starts listening on a port, then followed by something along the lines of:

console.log('Server is listening on port 8000');

But ideally you'd want this instead:

console.log('Server is listening on port ' + server.port);

How do I retrieve the port the server is currently listening on without storing the number in a variable prior to calling server.listen()?

I've seen this done before but I can't find it in the Node documentation. Maybe it's something specific to express?

In the current version (v0.5.0-pre) the port seems to be available as a property on the server object, see http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.4.7/api/net.html#server.address

var server = http.createServer(function(req, res) {
    ...
}

server.listen(8088);
console.log(server.address());
console.log(server.address().address);
console.log(server.address().port);

outputs

{ address: '0.0.0.0', port: 8088 }
0.0.0.0
8088

If you're using express, you can get it from the request object:

req.app.settings.port // => 8080 or whatever your app is listening at.

With latest node.js (v0.3.8-pre): I checked the documentation, inspected the server instance returned by http.createServer(), and read the source code of server.listen()...

Sadly, the port is only stored temporarily as a local variable and ends up as an argument in a call to process.binding('net').bind() which is a native method. I did not look further.

It seems that there is no better way than keeping a reference to the port value that you provided to server.listen().

I was asking myself this question too, then I came Express 4.x guide page to see this sample:

var server = app.listen(3000, function() {
   console.log('Listening on port %d', server.address().port);
});

In case when you need a port at the time of request handling and app is not available, you can use this:

request.socket.localPort

I use this way Express 4:

app.listen(1337, function(){
  console.log('Express listening on port', this.address().port);
});

By using this I don't need to use a separate variable for the listener/server.

req.headers.host.split(':')[1]

The simplest way to convert from the old style to the new (Express 3.x) style is like this:

var server = app.listen(8080);
console.log('Listening on port: ' + server.address().port);

Pre 3.x it works like this:

/* This no longer works */
app.listen(8080);
console.log('Listening on port: ' + app.address().port);

below a simple http server and how to get the listening port

var http = require("http");
             function onRequest(request, response) {
               console.log("Request received.");
               response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
               response.write("Hello World");
               response.end();
             }

             var server =http.createServer(onRequest).listen(process.env.PORT, function(){
            console.log('Listening on port '); //Listening on port 8888
        });

then get the server port by using :

console.log('Express server started on port %s', server.address().port);

You might be looking for process.env.PORT. This allows you to dynamically set the listening port using what are called "environment variables". The Node.js code would look like this:

const port = process.env.PORT || 3000; 
app.listen(port, () => {console.log(`Listening on port ${port}...`)}); 

You can even manually set the dynamic variable in the terminal using export PORT=5000, or whatever port you want.

Requiring the http module was never necessary.

An additional import of http is not necessary in Express 3 or 4. Assigning the result of listen() is enough.

var server = require('express')();

server.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.send("Hello Foo!");
});

var listener = server.listen(3000);
console.log('Your friendly Express server, listening on port %s', listener.address().port);
// Your friendly Express server, listening on port 3000

Again, this is tested in Express 3.5.1 & 4.0.0. Importing http was never necessary. The listen method returns an http server object. https://github.com/visionmedia/express/blob/master/lib/application.js#L531

The findandbind npm addresses this for express/restify/connect: https://github.com/gyllstromk/node-find-and-bind

In express v3.0,

/* No longer valid */
var app = express.createServer();
app.listen();
console.log('Server running on %s', app.address().port);

no longer works! For Express v3.0, you should create an app and a server this way:

var express = require('express');
var http = require('http');

var app = express();
var server = http.createServer(app);

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
    res.send("Hello World!");
});

server.listen(3000);
console.log('Express server started on port %s', server.address().port);

I ran in to this issue myself and wanted to document the new syntax. This and other changes in Express v3.0 are visible at https://github.com/visionmedia/express/wiki/Migrating-from-2.x-to-3.x

If you did not define the port number and you want to know on which port it is running.

let http = require('http');
let _http = http.createServer((req, res) => {
res.writeHead(200);
res.end('Hello..!')
}).listen();
console.log(_http.address().port);

FYI, every time it will run in a different port.

var express = require('express');    
var app = express();
    app.set('port', Config.port || 8881);
    var server = app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
        console.log('Express server listening on port ' + server.address().port); 
    });

Express server listening on port 8881

The easier way is just to call app.get('url'), which gives you the protocol, sub domain, domain, and port.

You can get the port number by using server.address().port like in below code:

var http = require('http');
var serverFunction = function (req, res) {

    if (req.url == '/') {
        console.log('get method');
        res.writeHead(200, { 'content-type': 'text/plain' });
        res.end('Hello World');
    }

}
var server = http.createServer(serverFunction);
server.listen(3002, function () {
    console.log('server is listening on port:', server.address().port);
});

const express = require('express');                                                                                                                           
const morgan = require('morgan')
const PORT = 3000;

morgan.token('port', (req) => { 
    return req.app.locals.port; 
});

const app = express();
app.locals.port = PORT;
app.use(morgan(':method :url :port'))
app.get('/app', function(req, res) {
    res.send("Hello world from server");
});

app1.listen(PORT);