How do I pass command line arguments to a Node js program

Question

I have a web server written in Node.js and I would like to launch with a specific folder. I'm not sure how to access arguments in JavaScript. I'm running node like this:

$ node server.js folder

here server.js is my server code. Node.js help says this is possible:

$ node -h
Usage: node [options] script.js [arguments]

How would I access those arguments in JavaScript? Somehow I was not able to find this information on the web.

Answer 1

Hello @kartik,

If your script is called myScript.js and you want to pass the first and last name, 'Sean Worthington', as arguments like below:

node myScript.js Sean Worthington

Then within your script you write:

var firstName = process.argv[2]; // Will be set to 'Sean'
var lastName = process.argv[3]; // Will be set to 'Worthington'

Hope this works!!

Thank You!!