To give some further info on top of current answers:
The contents of a node.js file are currently concatenated, in a string-like way, to form a function body.
For example if you have a file test.js:
// Amazing test file!
console.log('Test!');
Then node.js will secretly concatenate a function that looks like:
function(require, __dirname, ... perhaps more top-level properties) {
// Amazing test file!
console.log('Test!');
}
The major thing to note, is that the resulting function is NOT an async function. So you cannot use the term await directly inside of it!
But say you need to work with promises in this file, then there are two possible methods:
await directly inside the functionawaitOption 1 requires us to create a new scope (and this scope can be async, because we have control over it):
// Amazing test file!
// Create a new async function (a new scope) and immediately call it!
(async () => {
await new Promise(...);
console.log('Test!');
})();
Option 2 requires us to use the object-oriented promise API (the less pretty but equally functional paradigm of working with promises)
// Amazing test file!
// Create some sort of promise...
let myPromise = new Promise(...);
// Now use the object-oriented API
myPromise.then(() => console.log('Test!'));
It would be interesting to see node add support for top-level await!