1NODE(1) BSD General Commands Manual NODE(1)
2
4 node — server-side JavaScript runtime
5
7 node [options] [v8-options] [-e string | script.js | -] [--]
8 [arguments ...]
9 node inspect [-e string | script.js | - | <host>:<port>] ...
10 node [--v8-options]
11
13 Node.js is a set of libraries for JavaScript which allows it to be used
14 outside of the browser. It is primarily focused on creating simple,
15 easy-to-build network clients and servers.
16 Execute node without arguments to start a REPL.
18
20 - Alias for stdin, analogous to the use of - in other command-line
21 utilities. The executed script is read from stdin, and remaining
22 arguments are passed to the script.
23 -- Indicate the end of command-line options. Pass the rest of the
25 arguments to the script.
26 If no script filename or eval/print script is supplied prior to
28 this, then the next argument will be used as a script filename.
29 --abort-on-uncaught-exception
31 Aborting instead of exiting causes a core file to be generated
32 for analysis.
33 --completion-bash
35 Print source-able bash completion script for Node.js.
36 -C, --conditions string
38 Use custom conditional exports conditions. string
39 --cpu-prof
41 Start the V8 CPU profiler on start up, and write the CPU profile
42 to disk before exit. If --cpu-prof-dir is not specified, the pro‐
43 file will be written to the current working directory with a gen‐
44 erated file name.
45 --cpu-prof-dir
47 The directory where the CPU profiles generated by --cpu-prof will
48 be placed. The default value is controlled by the
49 --diagnostic-dir. command-line option.
50 --cpu-prof-interval
52 The sampling interval in microseconds for the CPU profiles gener‐
53 ated by --cpu-prof. The default is 1000.
54 --cpu-prof-name
56 File name of the V8 CPU profile generated with --cpu-prof.
57 --diagnostic-dir
59 Set the directory for all diagnostic output files. Default is
60 current working directory. Set the directory to which all diag‐
61 nostic output files will be written to. Defaults to current
62 working directory. Affects the default output directory of:
63 --cpu-prof-dir. --heap-prof-dir. --redirect-warnings.
64 --disable-proto=mode
66 Disable the `Object.prototype.__proto__` property. If mode is
67 `delete`, the property will be removed entirely. If mode is
68 `throw`, accesses to the property will throw an exception with
69 the code `ERR_PROTO_ACCESS`.
70 --disallow-code-generation-from-strings
72 Make built-in language features like `eval` and `new Function`
73 that generate code from strings throw an exception instead. This
74 does not affect the Node.js `vm` module.
75 --enable-fips
77 Enable FIPS-compliant crypto at startup. Requires Node.js to be
78 built with ./configure --openssl-fips.
79 --enable-source-maps
81 Enable Source Map V3 support for stack traces.
82 --experimental-global-customevent
84 Expose the CustomEvent on the global scope.
85 --experimental-global-webcrypto
87 Expose the Web Crypto API on the global scope.
88 --experimental-import-meta-resolve
90 Enable experimental ES modules support for import.meta.resolve().
91 --experimental-loader=module
93 Specify the module to use as a custom module loader.
94 --experimental-network-imports
96 Enable experimental support for loading modules using `import`
97 over `https:`.
98 --experimental-policy
100 Use the specified file as a security policy.
101 --no-experimental-fetch
103 Disable experimental support for the Fetch API.
104 --no-experimental-repl-await
106 Disable top-level await keyword support in REPL.
107 --experimental-specifier-resolution
109 Select extension resolution algorithm for ES Modules; either 'ex‐
110 plicit' (default) or 'node'.
111 --experimental-vm-modules
113 Enable experimental ES module support in VM module.
114 --experimental-wasi-unstable-preview1
116 Enable experimental WebAssembly System Interface support.
117 --experimental-wasm-modules
119 Enable experimental WebAssembly module support.
120 --force-context-aware
122 Disable loading native addons that are not context-aware.
123 --force-fips
125 Force FIPS-compliant crypto on startup (Cannot be disabled from
126 script code). Same requirements as --enable-fips.
127 --frozen-intrinsics
129 Enable experimental frozen intrinsics support.
130 --heapsnapshot-near-heap-limit=max_count
132 Generate heap snapshot when the V8 heap usage is approaching the
133 heap limit. No more than the specified number of snapshots will
134 be generated.
135 --heapsnapshot-signal=signal
137 Generate heap snapshot on specified signal.
138 --heap-prof
140 Start the V8 heap profiler on start up, and write the heap pro‐
141 file to disk before exit. If --heap-prof-dir is not specified,
142 the profile will be written to the current working directory with
143 a generated file name.
144 --heap-prof-dir
146 The directory where the heap profiles generated by --heap-prof
147 will be placed. The default value is controlled by the
148 --diagnostic-dir. command-line option.
149 --heap-prof-interval
151 The average sampling interval in bytes for the heap profiles gen‐
152 erated by --heap-prof. The default is 512 * 1024.
153 --heap-prof-name
155 File name of the V8 heap profile generated with --heap-prof.
156 --icu-data-dir=file
158 Specify ICU data load path. Overrides NODE_ICU_DATA.
159 --input-type=type
161 Set the module resolution type for input via --eval, --print or
162 STDIN.
163 --inspect-brk=[host:]port
165 Activate inspector on host:port and break at start of user
166 script.
167 --inspect-port=[host:]port
169 Set the host:port to be used when the inspector is activated.
170 --inspect-publish-uid=stderr,http
172 Specify how the inspector WebSocket URL is exposed. Valid values
173 are stderr and http. Default is stderr,http.
174 --inspect=[host:]port
176 Activate inspector on host:port. Default is 127.0.0.1:9229.
177 V8 Inspector integration allows attaching Chrome DevTools and
179 IDEs to Node.js instances for debugging and profiling. It uses
180 the Chrome DevTools Protocol.
181 --insecure-http-parser
183 Use an insecure HTTP parser that accepts invalid HTTP headers.
184 This may allow interoperability with non-conformant HTTP imple‐
185 mentations. It may also allow request smuggling and other HTTP
186 attacks that rely on invalid headers being accepted. Avoid using
187 this option.
188 --jitless
190 Disable runtime allocation of executable memory. This may be re‐
191 quired on some platforms for security reasons. It can also reduce
192 attack surface on other platforms, but the performance impact may
193 be severe.
194 This flag is inherited from V8 and is subject to change upstream.
196 It may disappear in a non-semver-major release.
197 --max-http-header-size=size
199 Specify the maximum size of HTTP headers in bytes. Defaults to 16
200 KiB.
201 --napi-modules
203 This option is a no-op. It is kept for compatibility.
204 --no-deprecation
206 Silence deprecation warnings.
207 --no-extra-info-on-fatal-exception
209 Hide extra information on fatal exception that causes exit.
210 --no-force-async-hooks-checks
212 Disable runtime checks for `async_hooks`. These will still be
213 enabled dynamically when `async_hooks` is enabled.
214 --no-addons
216 Disable the `node-addons` exports condition as well as disable
217 loading native addons. When `--no-addons` is specified, calling
218 `process.dlopen` or requiring a native C++ addon will fail and
219 throw an exception.
220 --no-global-search-paths
222 Do not search modules from global paths.
223 --no-warnings
225 Silence all process warnings (including deprecations).
226 --node-memory-debug
228 Enable extra debug checks for memory leaks in Node.js internals.
229 This is usually only useful for developers debugging Node.js it‐
230 self.
231 --openssl-config=file
233 Load an OpenSSL configuration file on startup. Among other uses,
234 this can be used to enable FIPS-compliant crypto if Node.js is
235 built with ./configure --openssl-fips.
236 --pending-deprecation
238 Emit pending deprecation warnings.
239 --policy-integrity=sri
241 Instructs Node.js to error prior to running any code if the pol‐
242 icy does not have the specified integrity. It expects a Subre‐
243 source Integrity string as a parameter.
244 --preserve-symlinks
246 Instructs the module loader to preserve symbolic links when re‐
247 solving and caching modules other than the main module.
248 --preserve-symlinks-main
250 Instructs the module loader to preserve symbolic links when re‐
251 solving and caching the main module.
252 --prof Generate V8 profiler output.
254 --prof-process
256 Process V8 profiler output generated using the V8 option --prof.
257 --redirect-warnings=file
259 Write process warnings to the given file instead of printing to
260 stderr.
261 --report-compact
263 Write diagnostic reports in a compact format, single-line JSON.
264 --report-dir --report-directory
266 Location at which the diagnostic report will be generated. The
267 `file` name may be an absolute path. If it is not, the default
268 directory it will be written to is controlled by the
269 --diagnostic-dir. command-line option.
270 --report-filename
272 Name of the file to which the diagnostic report will be written.
273 --report-on-fatalerror
275 Enables the diagnostic report to be triggered on fatal errors
276 (internal errors within the Node.js runtime such as out of mem‐
277 ory) that leads to termination of the application. Useful to in‐
278 spect various diagnostic data elements such as heap, stack, event
279 loop state, resource consumption etc. to reason about the fatal
280 error.
281 --report-on-signal
283 Enables diagnostic report to be generated upon receiving the
284 specified (or predefined) signal to the running Node.js process.
285 Default signal is SIGUSR2.
286 --report-signal
288 Sets or resets the signal for diagnostic report generation (not
289 supported on Windows). Default signal is SIGUSR2.
290 --report-uncaught-exception
292 Enables diagnostic report to be generated on un-caught excep‐
293 tions. Useful when inspecting JavaScript stack in conjunction
294 with native stack and other runtime environment data.
295 --secure-heap=n
297 Specify the size of the OpenSSL secure heap. Any value less than
298 2 disables the secure heap. The default is 0. The value must be a
299 power of two.
300 --secure-heap-min=n
302 Specify the minimum allocation from the OpenSSL secure heap. The
303 default is 2. The value must be a power of two.
304 --test Starts the Node.js command line test runner.
306 --test-name-pattern
308 A regular expression that configures the test runner to only exe‐
309 cute tests whose name matches the provided pattern.
310 --test-only
312 Configures the test runner to only execute top level tests that
313 have the `only` option set.
314 --throw-deprecation
316 Throw errors for deprecations.
317 --title=title
319 Specify process.title on startup.
320 --tls-cipher-list=list
322 Specify an alternative default TLS cipher list. Requires Node.js
323 to be built with crypto support. (Default)
324 --tls-keylog=file
326 Log TLS key material to a file. The key material is in NSS SS‐
327 LKEYLOGFILE format and can be used by software (such as Wire‐
328 shark) to decrypt the TLS traffic.
329 --tls-max-v1.2
331 Set default maxVersion to 'TLSv1.2'. Use to disable support for
332 TLSv1.3.
333 --tls-max-v1.3
335 Set default maxVersion to 'TLSv1.3'. Use to enable support for
336 TLSv1.3.
337 --tls-min-v1.0
339 Set default minVersion to 'TLSv1'. Use for compatibility with old
340 TLS clients or servers.
341 --tls-min-v1.1
343 Set default minVersion to 'TLSv1.1'. Use for compatibility with
344 old TLS clients or servers.
345 --tls-min-v1.2
347 Set default minVersion to 'TLSv1.2'. This is the default for 12.x
348 and later, but the option is supported for compatibility with
349 older Node.js versions.
350 --tls-min-v1.3
352 Set default minVersion to 'TLSv1.3'. Use to disable support for
353 TLSv1.2 in favour of TLSv1.3, which is more secure.
354 --trace-atomics-wait
356 Print short summaries of calls to Atomics.wait(). This flag is
357 deprecated.
358 --trace-deprecation
360 Print stack traces for deprecations.
361 --trace-event-categories categories
363 A comma-separated list of categories that should be traced when
364 trace event tracing is enabled using --trace-events-enabled.
365 --trace-event-file-pattern pattern
367 Template string specifying the filepath for the trace event data,
368 it supports ${rotation} and ${pid}.
369 --trace-events-enabled
371 Enable the collection of trace event tracing information.
372 --trace-exit
374 Prints a stack trace whenever an environment is exited proac‐
375 tively, i.e. invoking `process.exit()`.
376 --trace-sigint
378 Prints a stack trace on SIGINT.
379 --trace-sync-io
381 Print a stack trace whenever synchronous I/O is detected after
382 the first turn of the event loop.
383 --trace-tls
385 Prints TLS packet trace information to stderr.
386 --trace-uncaught
388 Print stack traces for uncaught exceptions; usually, the stack
389 trace associated with the creation of an Error is printed,
390 whereas this makes Node.js also print the stack trace associated
391 with throwing the value (which does not need to be an Error in‐
392 stance).
393 Enabling this option may affect garbage collection behavior nega‐
395 tively.
396 --trace-warnings
398 Print stack traces for process warnings (including deprecations).
399 --track-heap-objects
401 Track heap object allocations for heap snapshots.
402 --unhandled-rejections=mode
404 Define the behavior for unhandled rejections. Can be one of
405 `strict` (raise an error), `warn` (enforce warnings) or `none`
406 (silence warnings).
407 --update-assert-snapshot
409 Updates snapshot files used by `assert.snapshot()`.
410 --use-bundled-ca, --use-openssl-ca
412 Use bundled Mozilla CA store as supplied by current Node.js ver‐
413 sion or use OpenSSL's default CA store. The default store is se‐
414 lectable at build-time.
415 The bundled CA store, as supplied by Node.js, is a snapshot of
417 Mozilla CA store that is fixed at release time. It is identical
418 on all supported platforms.
419 Using OpenSSL store allows for external modifications of the
421 store. For most Linux and BSD distributions, this store is main‐
422 tained by the distribution maintainers and system administrators.
423 OpenSSL CA store location is dependent on configuration of the
424 OpenSSL library but this can be altered at runtime using environ‐
425 ment variables.
426 See SSL_CERT_DIR and SSL_CERT_FILE.
428 --use-largepages=mode
430 Re-map the Node.js static code to large memory pages at startup.
431 If supported on the target system, this will cause the Node.js
432 static code to be moved onto 2 MiB pages instead of 4 KiB pages.
433 mode must have one of the following values: `off` (the default
435 value, meaning do not map), `on` (map and ignore failure, report‐
436 ing it to stderr), or `silent` (map and silently ignore failure).
437 --v8-options
439 Print V8 command-line options.
440 --v8-pool-size=num
442 Set V8's thread pool size which will be used to allocate back‐
443 ground jobs. If set to 0 then V8 will choose an appropriate size
444 of the thread pool based on the number of online processors. If
445 the value provided is larger than V8's maximum, then the largest
446 value will be chosen.
447 --zero-fill-buffers
449 Automatically zero-fills all newly allocated Buffer and Slow‐
450 Buffer instances.
451 -c, --check
453 Check the script's syntax without executing it. Exits with an
454 error code if script is invalid.
455 -e, --eval string
457 Evaluate string as JavaScript.
458 -h, --help
460 Print command-line options. The output of this option is less
461 detailed than this document.
462 -i, --interactive
464 Open the REPL even if stdin does not appear to be a terminal.
465 -p, --print string
467 Identical to -e, but prints the result.
468 -r, --require module
470 Preload the specified module at startup. Follows `require()`'s
471 module resolution rules. module may be either a path to a file,
472 or a Node.js module name.
473 -v, --version
475 Print node's version.
476
478 FORCE_COLOR
479 Used to enable ANSI colorized output. The value may be one of: 1
480 , true , or an empty string to indicate 16-color support, 2 to
481 indicate 256-color support, or 3 to indicate 16 million-color
482 support. When used and set to a supported value, both the
483 NO_COLOR and NODE_DISABLE_COLORS environment variables are ig‐
484 nored. Any other value will result in colorized output being dis‐
485 abled.
486 NO_COLOR
488 Alias for NODE_DISABLE_COLORS
489 NODE_DEBUG modules...
491 Comma-separated list of core modules that should print debug in‐
492 formation.
493 NODE_DEBUG_NATIVE modules...
495 Comma-separated list of C++ core modules that should print debug
496 information.
497 NODE_DISABLE_COLORS
499 When set to 1, colors will not be used in the REPL.
500 NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS file
502 When set, the well-known “root” CAs (like VeriSign) will be ex‐
503 tended with the extra certificates in file. The file should con‐
504 sist of one or more trusted certificates in PEM format.
505 If file is missing or misformatted, a message will be emitted
507 once using process.emitWarning(), but any errors are otherwise
508 ignored.
509 This environment variable is ignored when `node` runs as setuid
511 root or has Linux file capabilities set.
512 The NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable is only read when
514 the Node.js process is first launched. Changing the value at
515 runtime using process.env.NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS has no effect on
516 the current process.
517 NODE_ICU_DATA file
519 Data path for ICU (Intl object) data. Will extend linked-in data
520 when compiled with small-icu support.
521 NODE_NO_WARNINGS
523 When set to 1, process warnings are silenced.
524 NODE_OPTIONS options...
526 A space-separated list of command-line options, which are inter‐
527 preted as if they had been specified on the command line before
528 the actual command (so they can be overridden). Node.js will
529 exit with an error if an option that is not allowed in the envi‐
530 ronment is used, such as --print or a script file.
531 NODE_PATH directories...
533 A colon-separated list of directories prefixed to the module
534 search path.
535 NODE_PENDING_DEPRECATION
537 When set to 1, emit pending deprecation warnings.
538 NODE_PRESERVE_SYMLINKS
540 When set to 1, the module loader preserves symbolic links when
541 resolving and caching modules.
542 NODE_REDIRECT_WARNINGS file
544 Write process warnings to the given file instead of printing to
545 stderr. Equivalent to passing --redirect-warnings file on the
546 command line.
547 NODE_REPL_HISTORY file
549 Path to the file used to store persistent REPL history. The de‐
550 fault path is ~/.node_repl_history, which is overridden by this
551 variable. Setting the value to an empty string ("" or " ") will
552 disable persistent REPL history.
553 NODE_REPL_EXTERNAL_MODULE file
555 Path to a Node.js module which will be loaded in place of the
556 built-in REPL. Overriding this value to an empty string (`''`)
557 will use the built-in REPL.
558 NODE_SKIP_PLATFORM_CHECK
560 When set to 1, the check for a supported platform is skipped dur‐
561 ing Node.js startup. Node.js might not execute correctly. Any
562 issues encountered on unsupported platforms will not be fixed.
563 NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED
565 When set to 0, TLS certificate validation is disabled.
566 NODE_V8_COVERAGE dir
568 When set, Node.js writes JavaScript code coverage information to
569 dir.
570 OPENSSL_CONF file
572 Load an OpenSSL configuration file on startup. Among other uses,
573 this can be used to enable FIPS-compliant crypto if Node.js is
574 built with ./configure --openssl-fips.
575 If the --openssl-config command-line option is used, this envi‐
577 ronment variable is ignored.
578 SSL_CERT_DIR dir
580 If --use-openssl-ca is enabled, this overrides and sets OpenSSL's
581 directory containing trusted certificates.
582 SSL_CERT_FILE file
584 If --use-openssl-ca is enabled, this overrides and sets OpenSSL's
585 file containing trusted certificates.
586 TZ Specify the timezone configuration.
588 UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE size
590 Sets the number of threads used in libuv's threadpool to size.
591
593 Bugs are tracked in GitHub Issues: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues
594
596 Copyright Node.js contributors. Node.js is available under the MIT li‐
597 cense.
598 Node.js also includes external libraries that are available under a vari‐
600 ety of licenses. See https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/HEAD/LICENSE
601 for the full license text.
602
604 Website: https://nodejs.org/
605 Documentation: https://nodejs.org/api/
607 GitHub repository and issue tracker: https://github.com/nodejs/node
609 IRC (general questions): libera.chat #node.js (unofficial)
611
613 Written and maintained by 1000+ contributors:
614 https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/HEAD/AUTHORS
615 February 6, 2023