__dirname and __filename for ES Modules on Node.js

Node.js v13.2.0 was released with support for ES Modules. The official announcement explains the overview.

In ES Modules environment, global variables such as require, exports, module.exports, __filename, __dirname are not available. require, exports, module.exports are no longer necessary in favor of ESM, but we still need __filename and __dirname which can be calculated from import.meta.url.

To make the migration from commonjs to ES Modules smooth, dirname-filename-esm provides functions to create __dirname and __filename variables easily in an ES Modules environment.

Installation

npm install --save dirname-filename-esm

Usage

Usage is very straightforward.

// In ".mjs" script or a script under "type": "module" package
import { dirname, filename } from 'dirname-filename-esm';

const __dirname = dirname(import.meta);
const __filename = filename(import.meta);

// Use __dirname and __filename like in a commonjs module

Two functions are exported.

• dirname() takes import.meta object and returns __dirname value of the script.
• filename() takes import.meta object and returns __filename value of the script.

These functions return an empty string if import.meta doesn't have url property.

This package has zero dependency.

This package offers TypeScript support. Since this package is for ES Modules environment, ensure that module option is set to one of the following values in your tsconfig.json.

• es2020 or later
• node16 or later

License

the MIT License