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NODE(1)

NAME

node - evented I/O for V8 JavaScript

SYNOPSIS

An example of a web server written with Node which responds with "Hello World":

var sys = require("sys"),
   http = require("http");
http.createServer(function (request, response) {
  response.writeHeader(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
  response.write("Hello World\n");
  response.close();
}).listen(8000);
sys.puts("Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/");

To run the server, put the code into a file called example.js and execute it with the node program

> node example.js
Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Encodings

Node supports 3 string encodings. UTF-8 ("utf8"), ASCII ("ascii"), and Binary ("binary"). "ascii" and "binary" only look at the first 8 bits of the 16bit JavaScript string characters. Both are relatively fast—​use them if you can. "utf8" is slower and should be avoided when possible.

Global Objects

global

The global namespace object.

process

The process object. Most stuff lives in here. See the "process object" section.

require()

See the modules section.

require.paths

The search path for absolute path arguments to require().

__filename

The filename of the script being executed.

__dirname

The dirname of the script being executed.

module

A reference to the current module (of type process.Module). In particular module.exports is the same as the exports object. See src/process.js for more information.

The process Object

Event Parameters Notes

"exit"

code

Made when the process exits. A listener on this event should not try to perform I/O since the process will forcibly exit in less than a microsecond. However, it is a good hook to perform constant time checks of the module’s state (like for unit tests).
The parameter code is the integer exit code passed to process.exit().

"uncaughtException"

exception

Emitted when an exception bubbles all the way down to the event loop. If a listener is added for this exception, the default action (which is to print a stack trace and exit) will not occur.

"SIGINT", "SIGUSR1", …​

(none)

Emitted when the processes receives a signal. See sigaction(2) for a list of standard POSIX signal names such as SIGINT, SIGUSR1, etc.
process.argv

An array containing the command line arguments.

process.env

An object containing the user environment. See environ(7).

process.pid

The PID of the process.

process.platform

What platform you’re running on. "linux2", "darwin", etc.

process.memoryUsage()

Returns the memory usage of the Node process. It looks like this

{
 "rss": 4935680,
 "vsize": 41893888,
 "heapTotal": 1826816,
 "heapUsed": 650472
}

heapTotal and heapUsed refer to V8’s memory usage.

process.nextTick(callback)

On the next loop around the event loop call this callback.

process.exit(code=0)

Ends the process with the specified code. By default it exits with the success code 0.

process.cwd()

Returns the current working directory of the process.

process.getuid(), process.setuid(id)

Gets/sets the user identity of the process. (See setuid(2).)

process.chdir(directory)

Changes the current working directory of the process.

process.umask(mask)

Sets the process’s file mode creation mask. Child processes inherit the mask from the parent process.

  • returns the old mask.

process.kill(pid, signal="SIGTERM")

Send a signal to a process. pid is the process id and signal is the signal to send; for example, "SIGINT" or "SIGUSR1". See kill(2) for more information.

process.watchFile(filename, [options,] listener)

Watch for changes on filename. The callback listener will be called each time the file changes.

The second argument is optional. The options if provided should be an object containing two members a boolean, persistent, and interval, a polling value in milliseconds. The default is {persistent: true, interval: 0}.

The listener gets two arguments the current stat object and the previous stat object:

process.watchFile(f, function (curr, prev) {
  sys.puts("the current mtime is: " + curr.mtime);
  sys.puts("the previous mtime was: " + prev.mtime);
});

These stat objects are instances of fs.Stat.

process.unwatchFile(filename)

Stop watching for changes on filename.

process.compile(source, scriptOrigin)

Just like eval() except that you can specify a scriptOrigin for better error reporting.

process.mixin([deep], target, object1, [objectN])

Extend one object with one or more others, returning the modified object. If no target is specified, the GLOBAL namespace itself is extended. Keep in mind that the target object will be modified, and will be returned from process.mixin().

If a boolean true is specified as the first argument, Node performs a deep copy, recursively copying any objects it finds. Otherwise, the copy will share structure with the original object(s).

Undefined properties are not copied. However, properties inherited from the object’s prototype will be copied over.

System module

These function are in the module "sys". Use require("sys") to access them.

puts(string)

Outputs the string and a trailing new-line to stdout.

print(string)

Like puts() but without the trailing new-line.

debug(string)

A synchronous output function. Will block the process and output the string immediately to stdout.

inspect(object, showHidden)

Return a string representation of the object. (For debugging.) If showHidden is true, then the object’s non-enumerable properties will be shown too.

exec(command, callback)

Executes the command as a child process, buffers the output and returns it in a callback.

var sys = require("sys");
sys.exec("ls /", function (err, stdout, stderr) {
  if (err) throw err;
  sys.puts(stdout);
});

The callback gets the arguments (err, stdout, stderr). On success err will be null. On error err will be an instance of Error and err.code will be the exit code of the child process.

Events

Many objects in Node emit events: a TCP server emits an event each time there is a connection, a child process emits an event when it exits. All objects which emit events are instances of events.EventEmitter.

Events are represented by a camel-cased string. Here are some examples: "connection", "data", "messageBegin".

Functions can be then be attached to objects, to be executed when an event is emitted. These functions are called listeners.

events.EventEmitter

require("events") to access the events module.

All EventEmitters emit the event "newListener" when new listeners are added.

Event Parameters Notes

"newListener"

event, listener

This event is made any time someone adds a new listener.
emitter.addListener(event, listener)

Adds a listener to the end of the listeners array for the specified event.

server.addListener("connection", function (socket) {
  sys.puts("someone connected!");
});
emitter.removeListener(event, listener)

Remove a listener from the listener array for the specified event. Caution: changes array indices in the listener array behind the listener.

emitter.listeners(event)

Returns an array of listeners for the specified event. This array can be manipulated, e.g. to remove listeners.

emitter.emit(event, arg1, arg2, …​)

Execute each of the listeners in order with the supplied arguments.

Standard I/O

Standard I/O is handled through a special object process.stdio. stdout and stdin are fully non-blocking (even when piping to files). stderr is synchronous.

Event Parameters Notes

"data"

data

Made when stdin has received a chunk of data. Depending on the encoding that stdin was opened with, data will be a string. This event will only be emited after process.stdio.open() has been called.

"close"

Made when stdin has been closed.
process.stdio.open(encoding="utf8")

Open stdin. The program will not exit until process.stdio.close() has been called or the "close" event has been emitted.

process.stdio.write(data)

Write data to stdout.

process.stdio.writeError(data)

Write data to stderr. Synchronous.

process.stdio.close()

Close stdin.

Modules

Node uses the CommonJS module system.

Node has a simple module loading system. In Node, files and modules are in one-to-one correspondence. As an example, foo.js loads the module circle.js in the same directory.

The contents of foo.js:

var circle = require("./circle"),
var sys = require("sys");
sys.puts( "The area of a circle of radius 4 is "
        + circle.area(4));

The contents of circle.js:

var PI = 3.14;

exports.area = function (r) {
  return PI * r * r;
};

exports.circumference = function (r) {
  return 2 * PI * r;
};

The module circle.js has exported the functions area() and circumference(). To export an object, add to the special exports object. (Alternatively, one can use this instead of exports.) Variables local to the module will be private. In this example the variable PI is private to circle.js. The function puts() comes from the module "sys", which is a built-in module. Modules which are not prefixed by "./" are built-in module—​more about this later.

A module prefixed with "./" is relative to the file calling require(). That is, circle.js must be in the same directory as foo.js for require("./circle") to find it.

Without the leading "./", like require("mjsunit") the module is searched for in the require.paths array. require.paths on my system looks like this:

[ "/home/ryan/.node_libraries"
, "/usr/local/lib/node/libraries"
]

That is, when require("mjsunit") is called Node looks for

  1. "/home/ryan/.node_libraries/mjsunit.js"

  2. "/home/ryan/.node_libraries/mjsunit.node"

  3. "/home/ryan/.node_libraries/mjsunit/index.js"

  4. "/home/ryan/.node_libraries/mjsunit/index.node"

  5. "/usr/local/lib/node/libraries/mjsunit.js"

  6. "/usr/local/lib/node/libraries/mjsunit.node"

  7. "/usr/local/lib/node/libraries/mjsunit/index.js"

  8. "/usr/local/lib/node/libraries/mjsunit/index.node"

interrupting once a file is found. Files ending in ".node" are binary Addon Modules; see the section below about addons. "index.js" allows one to package a module as a directory.

require.paths can be modified at runtime by simply unshifting new paths onto it, or at startup with the NODE_PATH environmental variable (which should be a list of paths, colon separated).

Use process.mixin() to include modules into the global namespace.

process.mixin(GLOBAL, require("./circle"), require("sys"));
puts("The area of a circle of radius 4 is " + area(4));

Timers

The following are global variables

setTimeout(callback, delay, [arg, …​])

To schedule execution of callback after delay milliseconds. Returns a timeoutId for possible use with clearTimeout().

Optionally, you can also pass arguments to the callback.

clearTimeout(timeoutId)

Prevents said timeout from triggering.

setInterval(callback, delay, [arg, …​])

To schedule the repeated execution of callback every delay milliseconds. Returns a intervalId for possible use with clearInterval().

Optionally, you can also pass arguments to the callback.

clearInterval(intervalId)

Stops a interval from triggering.

Child Processes

Node provides a tridirectional popen(3) facility through the class process.ChildProcess. It is possible to stream data through the child’s stdin, stdout, and stderr in a fully non-blocking way.

process.ChildProcess

Event Parameters Notes

"output"

data

Each time the child process sends data to its stdout, this event is emitted. data is a string. If the child process closes its stdout stream (a common thing to do on exit), this event will be emitted with data === null.

"error"

data

Identical to the "output" event except for stderr instead of stdout.

"exit"

code

This event is emitted after the child process ends. code is the final exit code of the process. One can be assured that after this event is emitted that the "output" and "error" callbacks will no longer be made.
process.createChildProcess(command, args=[], env=process.env)

Launches a new process with the given command, command line arguments, and environmental variables. For example:

var ls = process.createChildProcess("ls", ["-lh", "/usr"]);
ls.addListener("output", function (data) {
  sys.puts(data);
});

Note, if you just want to buffer the output of a command and return it, then exec() in /sys.js might be better.

child.pid

The PID of the child process.

child.write(data, encoding="ascii")

Write data to the child process’s stdin. The second argument is optional and specifies the encoding: possible values are "utf8", "ascii", and "binary".

child.close()

Closes the process’s stdin stream.

child.kill(signal="SIGTERM")

Send a signal to the child process. If no argument is given, the process will be sent "SIGTERM". See signal(7) for a list of available signals.

File System

File I/O is provided by simple wrappers around standard POSIX functions. To use this module do require("fs"). All the methods have asynchornous and synchronous forms.

The asynchronous form always take a completion callback as its last argument. The arguments passed to the completion callback depend on the method, but the first argument is always reserved for an exception. If the operation was completed successfully, then the first argument will be null or undefined.

Here is an example of the asynchornous version:

var fs = require("fs"),
    sys = require("sys");

fs.unlink("/tmp/hello", function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  sys.puts("successfully deleted /tmp/hello");
});

Here is the synchronous version:

var fs = require("fs"),
    sys = require("sys");

fs.unlinkSync("/tmp/hello")
sys.puts("successfully deleted /tmp/hello");

With the asynchronous methods there is no guaranteed ordering. So the following is prone to error:

fs.rename("/tmp/hello", "/tmp/world", function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  sys.puts("renamed complete");
});
fs.stat("/tmp/world", function (err, stats) {
  if (err) throw err;
  sys.puts("stats: " + JSON.stringify(stats));
});

It could be that fs.stat is executed before fs.rename. The correct way to do this is to chain the callbacks.

fs.rename("/tmp/hello", "/tmp/world", function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  fs.stat("/tmp/world", function (err, stats) {
    if (err) throw err;
    sys.puts("stats: " + JSON.stringify(stats));
  });
});

In busy processes, the programmer is strongly encouraged to use the asynchronous versions of these calls. The synchronous versions will block the entire process until they complete—​halting all connections.

fs.rename(path1, path2, callback)

Asynchronous rename(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.renameSync(path1, path2)

Synchronous rename(2).

fs.truncate(fd, len, callback)

Asynchronous ftruncate(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.truncateSync(fd, len)

Synchronous ftruncate(2).

fs.chmod(path, mode, callback)

Asynchronous chmod(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

fs.chmodSync(path, mode)

Synchronous chmod(2).

fs.stat(path, callback)

Asynchronous stat(2). The callback gets two arguments (err, stats) where stats is a fs.Stats object. It looks like this:

{ dev: 2049
, ino: 305352
, mode: 16877
, nlink: 12
, uid: 1000
, gid: 1000
, rdev: 0
, size: 4096
, blksize: 4096
, blocks: 8
, atime: "2009-06-29T11:11:55Z"
, mtime: "2009-06-29T11:11:40Z"
, ctime: "2009-06-29T11:11:40Z"
}
----------------------------------
+
See the +fs.Stats+ section below for more information.

+fs.statSync(path)+ ::
Synchronous stat(2). Returns an instance of +fs.Stats+.


+fs.unlink(path, callback)+ ::
Asynchronous unlink(2).
No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

+fs.unlinkSync(path)+ ::
Synchronous unlink(2).


+fs.rmdir(path, callback)+ ::
Asynchronous rmdir(2).
No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

+fs.rmdirSync(path)+ ::
Synchronous rmdir(2).


+fs.mkdir(path, mode, callback)+ ::
Asynchronous mkdir(2).
No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

+fs.mkdirSync(path, mode)+ ::
Synchronous mkdir(2).


+fs.readdir(path, callback)+ ::
Asynchronous readdir(3).  Reads the contents of a directory.
The callback gets two arguments +(err, files)+ where +files+ is an array of
the names of the files in the directory excluding +"."+ and +".."+.


+fs.close(fd, callback)+ ::
Asynchronous close(2).
No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

+fs.closeSync(fd)+ ::
Synchronous close(2).


+fs.open(path, flags, mode, callback)+::
Asynchronous file open. See open(2). Flags can be "r", "r+", "w", "w+", "a",
or "a+". The callback gets two arguments +(err, fd)+.

+fs.openSync(path, flags, mode)+::
Synchronous open(2).


+fs.write(fd, data, position, encoding, callback)+::
Write data to the file specified by +fd+.  +position+ refers to the offset
from the beginning of the file where this data should be written. If
+position+ is +null+, the data will be written at the current position.
See pwrite(2).
+
The callback will be given two arguments +(err, written)+ where +written+
specifies how many _bytes_ were written.

+fs.writeSync(fd, data, position, encoding)+::
Synchronous version of +fs.write()+. Returns the number of bytes written.


+fs.read(fd, length, position, encoding, callback)+::
Read data from the file specified by +fd+.
+
+length+ is an integer specifying the number of
bytes to read.
+
+position+ is an integer specifying where to begin
reading from in the file.
+
The callback is given three arguments, +(err, data, bytesRead)+ where +data+
is a string--what was read--and +bytesRead+ is the number of bytes read.

+fs.readSync(fd, length, position, encoding)+::
Synchronous version of +fs.read+. Returns an array +[data, bytesRead]+.

+fs.readFile(filename, encoding="utf8", callback)+::
Asynchronously reads the entire contents of a file. Example:
+
--------------------------------
fs.readFile("/etc/passwd", function (err, data) {
  if (err) throw err;
  sys.puts(content);
});
--------------------------------
+
The callback is passed two arguments +(err, data)+, where +data+ is the
contents of the file.

+fs.readFileSync(filename, encoding="utf8")+::
Synchronous version of +fs.readFile+. Returns the contents of the
+filename+.


+fs.writeFile(filename, data, encoding="utf8", callback)+::
Asynchronously writes data to a file. Example:
+
--------------------------------
fs.writeFile("message.txt", "Hello Node", function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  sys.puts("It's saved!");
});
--------------------------------

+fs.writeFileSync(filename, data, encoding="utf8")+::
The synchronous version of +fs.writeFile+.



=== +fs.Stats+

Objects returned from +fs.stat()+ are of this type.

+stats.isFile()+::

+stats.isDirectory()+::

+stats.isBlockDevice()+::

+stats.isCharacterDevice()+::

+stats.isSymbolicLink()+::

+stats.isFIFO()+::

+stats.isSocket()+:: ...

== HTTP

To use the HTTP server and client one must +require("http")+.

The HTTP interfaces in Node are designed to support many features
of the protocol which have been traditionally difficult to use.
In particular, large, possibly chunk-encoded, messages. The interface is
careful to never buffer entire requests or responses--the
user is able to stream data.

HTTP message headers are represented by an object like this:

----------------------------------------
{ "content-length": "123"
, "content-type": "text/plain"
, "connection": "keep-alive"
, "accept": "*/*"
}
----------------------------------------

Keys are lowercased. Values are not modified.

In order to support the full spectrum of possible HTTP applications, Node's
HTTP API is very low-level. It deals with connection handling and message
parsing only. It parses a message into headers and body but it does not
parse the actual headers or the body.


=== +http.Server+

[cols="1,2,10",options="header"]
|=========================================================
|Event           | Parameters          | Notes

|+"request"+     | +request, response+ | +request+ is an instance of +http.ServerRequest+
                                         +
                                         +response+ is an instance of +http.ServerResponse+

|+"connection"+  | +connection+        | When a new TCP connection is established.
                                         +connection+ is an object of type
                                         +http.Connection+. Usually users
                                         will not want to access this event.
                                         The +connection+ can also be
                                         accessed at +request.connection+.

|+"close"+       | +errorno+           | Emitted when the server closes. +errorno+
                                         is an integer which indicates what, if any,
                                         error caused the server to close. If no
                                         error occured +errorno+ will be 0.

|=========================================================

+http.createServer(request_listener, [options]);+ ::
Returns a new web server object.
+
The +options+ argument is optional. The
+options+ argument accepts the same values as the
options argument for +tcp.Server+.
+
The +request_listener+ is a function which is automatically
added to the +"request"+ event.

+server.setSecure(format_type, ca_certs, crl_list, private_key, certificate)+ ::
Enable TLS for all incoming connections, with the specified credentials.
+
+format_type+ currently has to be "X509_PEM", and each of the ca, crl, key and
cert parameters are in the format of PEM strings.
+
+ca_certs+ is a string that holds a number of CA certificates for use in accepting
client connections that authenticate themselves with a client certificate.
+private_key+ is a PEM string of the unencrypted key for the server.

+server.listen(port, hostname)+ ::
Begin accepting connections on the specified port and hostname.
If the hostname is omitted, the server will accept connections
directed to any address. This function is synchronous.

+server.close()+ ::
Stops the server from accepting new connections.



=== +http.ServerRequest+

This object is created internally by a HTTP server--not by
the user--and passed as the first argument to a +"request"+ listener.

[cols="1,2,10",options="header"]
|=========================================================
|Event           | Parameters   | Notes

|+"data"+        | +chunk+      | Emitted when a piece of the
                                  message body is received. Example: A chunk
                                  of the body is given as the single
                                  argument. The transfer-encoding has been
                                  decoded.  The body chunk is a string.  The
                                  body encoding is set with
                                  +request.setBodyEncoding()+.

|+"end"+         | (none)       | Emitted exactly once for each message.
                                  No arguments.  After emitted no other
                                  events will be emitted on the request.
|=========================================================

+request.method+ ::
The request method as a string. Read only. Example:
+"GET"+, +"DELETE"+.


+request.url+ ::
Request URL string. This contains only the URL that is
present in the actual HTTP request. If the request is:
+
----------------------------------------
GET /status?name=ryan HTTP/1.1\r\n
Accept: text/plain\r\n
\r\n
----------------------------------------
+
Then +request.url+ will be:
+
----------------------------------------
"/status?name=ryan"
----------------------------------------
+
If you would like to parse the URL into its parts, you can use
+require("url").parse(request.url)+.  Example:
+
----------------------------------------
node> require("url").parse("/status?name=ryan")
{
 "href": "/status?name=ryan",
 "search": "?name=ryan",
 "query": "name=ryan",
 "pathname": "/status"
}
----------------------------------------
+
If you would like to extract the params from the query string,
you can use the +require("querystring").parse+ function, or pass
+true+ as the second argument to +require("url").parse+.  Example:
+
----------------------------------------
node> require("url").parse("/status?name=ryan", true)
{
 "href": "/status?name=ryan",
 "search": "?name=ryan",
 "query": {
  "name": "ryan"
 },
 "pathname": "/status"
}
----------------------------------------
+


+request.headers+ ::
Read only.


+request.httpVersion+ ::
The HTTP protocol version as a string. Read only. Examples:
+"1.1"+, +"1.0"+


+request.setBodyEncoding(encoding="binary")+ ::
Set the encoding for the request body. Either +"utf8"+ or +"binary"+. Defaults
to +"binary"+.


+request.pause()+ ::
Pauses request from emitting events.  Useful to throttle back an upload.


+request.resume()+ ::
Resumes a paused request.


+request.connection+ ::
The +http.Connection+ object.


=== +http.ServerResponse+

This object is created internally by a HTTP server--not by the user. It is
passed as the second parameter to the +"request"+ event.

+response.writeHeader(statusCode[, reasonPhrase] , headers)+ ::

Sends a response header to the request. The status code is a 3-digit HTTP
status code, like +404+. The last argument, +headers+, are the response headers.
Optionally one can give a human-readable +reasonPhrase+ as the second
argument.
+
Example:
+
----------------------------------------
var body = "hello world";
response.writeHeader(200, {
  "Content-Length": body.length,
  "Content-Type": "text/plain"
});
----------------------------------------
+
This method must only be called once on a message and it must
be called before +response.close()+ is called.

+response.write(chunk, encoding="ascii")+ ::

This method must be called after +writeHeader+ was
called. It sends a chunk of the response body. This method may
be called multiple times to provide successive parts of the body.
+
If +chunk+ is a string, the second parameter
specifies how to encode it into a byte stream. By default the
+encoding+ is +"ascii"+.
+
Note: This is the raw HTTP body and has nothing to do with
higher-level multi-part body encodings that may be used.
+
The first time +response.write()+ is called, it will send the buffered
header information and the first body to the client. The second time
+response.write()+ is called, Node assumes you're going to be streaming
data, and sends that seperately. That is, the response is buffered up to the
first chunk of body.


+response.close()+ ::
This method signals to the server that all of the response headers and body
has been sent; that server should consider this message complete.
The method, +response.close()+, MUST be called on each
response.



=== +http.Client+

An HTTP client is constructed with a server address as its
argument, the returned handle is then used to issue one or more
requests.  Depending on the server connected to, the client might
pipeline the requests or reestablish the connection after each
connection. _Currently the implementation does not pipeline requests._

Example of connecting to +google.com+

----------------------------------------
var sys = require("sys"),
   http = require("http");
var google = http.createClient(80, "www.google.com");
var request = google.request("GET", "/", {"host": "www.google.com"});
request.addListener('response', function (response) {
  sys.puts("STATUS: " + response.statusCode);
  sys.puts("HEADERS: " + JSON.stringify(response.headers));
  response.setBodyEncoding("utf8");
  response.addListener("data", function (chunk) {
    sys.puts("BODY: " + chunk);
  });
});
request.close();
----------------------------------------

+http.createClient(port, host)+ ::

Constructs a new HTTP client. +port+ and
+host+ refer to the server to be connected to. A
connection is not established until a request is issued.

+client.request([method], path, [request_headers])+ ::

Issues a request; if necessary establishes connection. Returns a +http.ClientRequest+ instance.

+
+method+ is optional and defaults to "GET" if omitted.
+
+request_headers+ is optional.
Additional request headers might be added internally
by Node. Returns a +ClientRequest+ object.
+
Do remember to include the +Content-Length+ header if you
plan on sending a body. If you plan on streaming the body, perhaps
set +Transfer-Encoding: chunked+.
+
NOTE: the request is not complete. This method only sends
the header of the request. One needs to call
+request.close()+ to finalize the request and retrieve
the response.  (This sounds convoluted but it provides a chance
for the user to stream a body to the server with
+request.write()+.)

+client.setSecure(format_type, ca_certs, crl_list, private_key, certificate)+ ::
Enable TLS for the client connection, with the specified credentials.
+
+format_type+ currently has to be "X509_PEM", and each of the ca, crl, key and
cert parameters are in the format of PEM strings, and optional.
+
+ca_certs+ is a string that holds a number of CA certificates for use in deciding the
authenticity of the remote server. +private_key+ is a PEM string of the unencrypted
key for the client, which together with the certificate allows the client to authenticate
itself to the server.


=== +http.ClientRequest+

This object is created internally and returned from the request methods of a
+http.Client+. It represents an _in-progress_ request whose header has
already been sent.

To get the response, add a listener for +'response'+ to the request object.
+'response'+ will be emitted from the request object when the response
headers have been received.  The +'response'+ event is executed with one
argument which is an instance of +http.ClientResponse+.

During the +'response'+ event, one can add listeners to the
response object; particularly to listen for the +"data"+ event. Note that
the +'response' event is called before any part of the response body is received,
so there is no need to worry about racing to catch the first part of the
body. As long as a listener for +'data'+ is added during the +'response'
event, the entire body will be caught.

----------------------------------------
// Good
request.addListener('response', function (response) {
  response.addListener("data", function (chunk) {
    sys.puts("BODY: " + chunk);
  });
});

// Bad - misses all or part of the body
request.addListener('response', function (response) {
  setTimeout(function () {
    response.addListener("data", function (chunk) {
      sys.puts("BODY: " + chunk);
    });
  }, 10);
});
----------------------------------------


[cols="1,2,10",options="header"]
|=========================================================
|Event           | Parameters   | Notes
|+"response"+    | +response+ |
Emitted when a response is received to this request.
+
This event is emitted only once.
+
The +response+ argument will be an instance of +http.ClientResponse+.
|=========================================================


+request.write(chunk, encoding="ascii")+ ::

Sends a chunk of the body.  By calling this method
many times, the user can stream a request body to a
server—in that case it is suggested to use the
+["Transfer-Encoding", "chunked"]+ header line when
creating the request.
+
The +chunk+ argument should be an array of integers
or a string.
+
The +encoding+ argument is optional and only
applies when +chunk+ is a string. The encoding
argument should be either +"utf8"+ or
+"ascii"+. By default the body uses ASCII encoding,
as it is faster.


+request.close()+ ::

Finishes sending the request. If any parts of the body are
unsent, it will flush them to the socket. If the request is
chunked, this will send the terminating +"0\r\n\r\n"+.



=== +http.ClientResponse+

This object is created internally and passed to the +"response"+ event.

[cols="1,2,10",options="header"]
|=========================================================
|Event           | Parameters   | Notes

|+"data"+        | +chunk+ |
Emitted when a piece of the message body is received. Example: A chunk of
the body is given as the single argument. The transfer-encoding has been
decoded.  The body chunk a String.  The body encoding is set with
+response.setBodyEncoding()+.

|+"end"+    |        |
Emitted exactly once for each message. No arguments.
After emitted no other events will be emitted on the response.

|=========================================================

+response.statusCode+ ::
  The 3-digit HTTP response status code. E.G. +404+.

+response.httpVersion+ ::
  The HTTP version of the connected-to server. Probably either
  +"1.1"+ or +"1.0"+.

+response.headers+ ::
  The response headers.

+response.setBodyEncoding(encoding)+ ::
  Set the encoding for the response body. Either +"utf8"+ or +"binary"+.
  Defaults to +"binary"+.

+response.pause()+ ::
  Pauses response from emitting events.  Useful to throttle back a download.

+response.resume()+ ::
  Resumes a paused response.

+response.client+ ::
  A reference to the +http.Client+ that this response belongs to.

== Multipart Parsing

A library to parse +multipart+ internet messages is included with
Node.  To use it, +require("multipart")+.

+multipart.parse(message)+ ::
  Returns a multipart.Stream wrapper around a streaming message.
  The message must contain a `headers` member, and may be either an
  HTTP request object or a JSGI-style request object with either a
  forEachable or String body.
  +
  See the Stream class below.

+multipart.cat(message, callback)+ ::
  On success, +callback+ is called with +(null, stream)+ where +stream+ is a
  +multipart.Stream+ object representing the completed message.  The body of
  each part is saved on the `body` member.
  +
  On error, +callback+ is called with +(err)+ where +err+ is an instanceof
  the +Error+ object.  This indicates that the message was malformed in some
  way.
  +
  *Note*: This function saves the *entire* message into memory.  As such, it
  is ill-suited to parsing actual incoming messages from an HTTP request!
  If a user uploads a very large file, then it may cause serious problems.
  No checking is done to ensure that the file does not overload the memory.
  Only use +multipart.cat+ with known and trusted input!


=== +multipart.Stream+

The multipart.Stream class is a streaming parser wrapped around a message.
The Stream also contains the properties described for the +part+ objects below,
and is a reference to the top-level message.


[cols="1,2,10",options="header"]
|=========================================================
|Event           | Parameters   | Notes
|+"partBegin"+   | +part+       | Emitted when a new part is found in the stream.
                                  +part+ is a +part object+, described below.
|+"partEnd"+     | +part+       | Emitted when a part is done.
|+"body"+        | +chunk+      | Emitted when a chunk of the body is read.
|+"complete"+    |              | Emitted when the end of the stream is reached.
|+"error"+       | +error+      | Emitted when a parse error is encountered. This
                                  indicates that the message is malformed.
|=========================================================


+stream.part+::
The current part being processed.  This is important, for instance, when responding
to the +body+ event.

+stream.isMultiPart+::
True if the stream is a multipart message.  Generally this will be true, but non-multipart
messages will behave the same as a multipart message with a single part, and +isMultiPart+
will be set to +false+.

+stream.parts+::
An array of the parts contained within the message.  Each is a +part+ object.

+stream.pause+::
If the underlying message supports pause and resume, then this will pause the stream.

+stream.resume+::
If the underlying message supports pause and resume, then this will resume the paused stream.

=== +multipart.Part+

As it parses the message, the Stream object will create +Part+ objects.

+part.parent+::
The message that contains this part.

+part.headers+::
The headers object for this message.

+part.filename+::
The filename, if specified in the +content-disposition+ or +content-type+ header.
For uploads, downloads, and attachments, this is the intended filename for the
attached file.

+part.name+::
The name, if specified in the +content-disposition+ or +content-type+ header.  For
+multipart/form-data+ messages, this is the name of the field that was posted, and the
body specifies the value.

+part.isMultiPart+::
True if this part is a multipart message.

+part.parts+::
Array of children contained within a multipart message, or falsey.

+part.boundary+::
For multipart messages, this is the boundary that separates subparts.

+part.type+::
For multipart messages, this is the multipart type specified in the +content-type+ header.
For example, a message with +content-type: multipart/form-data+ will have a +type+
property of +form-data+.

=== Example

Here is an example for parsing a +multipart/form-data+ request:

----------------------------------------
var multipart = require("multipart"),
  sys = require("sys"),
  http = require("http");
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
  var mp = multipart.parse(req),
    fields = {},
    name, filename;
  mp.addListener("error", function (er) {
    res.writeHeader(400, {"content-type":"text/plain"});
    res.write("You sent a bad message!\n"+er.message);
    res.close();
  });
  mp.addListener("partBegin", function (part) {
    name = part.name;
    filename = part.filename;
    if (name) fields[name] = "";
  });
  mp.addListener("body", function (chunk) {
    if (name) {
      // just a demo.  in reality, you'd probably
      // want to sniff for base64 encoding, decode,
      // and write the bytes to a file or something.
      if (fields[name].length > 1024) return;
      fields[name] += chunk;
    }
  });
  mp.addListener("complete", function () {
    var response = "You posted: \n" + sys.inspect(fields);
    res.writeHeader(200, {
      "content-type" : "text/plain",
      "content-length" : response.length
    });
    res.write(response);
    res.close();
  })
});
----------------------------------------

=== Nested Multipart Messages

Nested multipart parsing is supported. The +stream.part+ object always refers
to the current part. If +part.isMultiPart+ is set, then that part is a
multipart message, which contains other parts. You can inspect its +parts+
array to see the list of sub-parts, which may also be multipart, and contain
sub-parts.

== TCP

To use the TCP server and client one must +require("tcp")+.

=== +tcp.Server+

Here is an example of a echo server which listens for connections
on port 7000:

----------------------------------------
var tcp = require("tcp");
var server = tcp.createServer(function (socket) {
  socket.setEncoding("utf8");
  socket.addListener("connect", function () {
    socket.write("hello\r\n");
  });
  socket.addListener("data", function (data) {
    socket.write(data);
  });
  socket.addListener("end", function () {
    socket.write("goodbye\r\n");
    socket.close();
  });
});
server.listen(7000, "localhost");
----------------------------------------


[cols="1,2,10",options="header"]
|=========================================================
|Event           | Parameters   | Notes
|+"connection"+  | +connection+ | Emitted when a new connection is made.
                                  +connection+ is an instance of +tcp.Connection+.
|+"close"+       | +errorno+    | Emitted when the server closes. +errorno+
                                  is an integer which indicates what, if any,
                                  error caused the server to close. If no
                                  error occurred +errorno+ will be 0.
|=========================================================

+tcp.createServer(connection_listener);+ ::
Creates a new TCP server.
+
The +connection_listener+ argument is automatically set as a listener for
the +"connection"+ event.

+server.setSecure(format_type, ca_certs, crl_list, private_key, certificate)+ ::
Enable TLS for all incoming connections, with the specified credentials.
+
+format_type+ currently has to be "X509_PEM", and each of the ca, crl, key and
cert parameters are in the format of PEM strings.
+
+ca_certs+ is a string that holds a number of CA certificates for use in accepting
client connections that authenticate themselves with a client certificate.
+private_key+ is a PEM string of the unencrypted key for the server.

+server.listen(port, host=null, backlog=128)+ ::
Tells the server to listen for TCP connections to +port+ and +host+.
+
+host+ is optional. If +host+ is not specified the server will accept client
connections on any network address.
+
The third argument, +backlog+, is also optional and defaults to 128.  The
+backlog+ argument defines the maximum length to which the queue of pending
connections for the server may grow.
+
This function is synchronous.

+server.close()+::
Stops the server from accepting new connections. This function is
asynchronous, the server is finally closed when the server emits a +"close"+
event.


=== +tcp.Connection+

This object is used as a TCP client and also as a server-side
socket for +tcp.Server+.

[cols="1,2,10",options="header"]
|=========================================================
|Event           | Parameters   | Notes
|+"connect"+     |              | Call once the connection is established
                                  after a call to +createConnection()+ or
                                  +connect()+.
|+"data"+        | +data+       | Called when data is received on the
                                  connection.  +data+ will be a string.
                                  Encoding of data is set by
                                  +connection.setEncoding()+.
|+"end"+         |              | Called when the other end of the
                                  connection sends a FIN packet.
                                  After this is emitted the +readyState+
                                  will be +"writeOnly"+. One should probably
                                  just call +connection.close()+ when this
                                  event is emitted.
|+"timeout"+     |              | Emitted if the connection times out from
                                  inactivity. The +"close"+ event will be
                                  emitted immediately following this event.
|+"drain"+       |              | Emitted when the write buffer becomes
                                  empty. Can be used to throttle uploads.
|+"close"+       | +had_error+  | Emitted once the connection is fully
                                  closed. The argument +had_error+
                                  is a boolean which says if the connection
                                  was closed due to a transmission error.
                                  (TODO: access error codes.)
|=========================================================

+tcp.createConnection(port, host="127.0.0.1")+::
Creates a new connection object and opens a connection to the specified
+port+ and +host+. If the second parameter is omitted, localhost is assumed.
+
When the connection is established the +"connect"+ event will be emitted.

+connection.connect(port, host="127.0.0.1")+::
Opens a connection to the specified +port+ and +host+. +createConnection()+
also opens a connection; normally this method is not needed. Use this only
if a connection is closed and you want to reuse the object to connect to
another server.
+
This function is asynchronous. When the +"connect"+ event is emitted the
connection is established. If there is a problem connecting, the +"connect"+
event will not be emitted, the +"close"+ event will be emitted with
+had_error == true+.

+connection.remoteAddress+::
The string representation of the remote IP address.  For example,
+"74.125.127.100"+ or +"2001:4860:a005::68"+.
+
This member is only present in server-side connections.


+connection.readyState+::
Either +"closed"+, +"open"+, +"opening"+, +"readOnly"+, or +"writeOnly"+.


+connection.setEncoding(encoding)+::
Sets the encoding (either +"ascii"+, +"utf8"+, or +"binary"+) for data that is received.

+connection.write(data, encoding="ascii")+::
Sends data on the connection. The second parameter specifies the encoding
in the case of a string--it defaults to ASCII because encoding to UTF8 is
rather slow.


+connection.close()+::
Half-closes the connection. I.E., it sends a FIN packet. It is
possible the server will still send some data. After calling
this +readyState+ will be +"readOnly"+.


+connection.forceClose()+::
Ensures that no more I/O activity happens on this socket. Only
necessary in case of errors (parse error or so).

+connection.pause()+::
Pauses the reading of data. That is, +"data"+ events will not be emitted.
Useful to throttle back an upload.

+connection.resume()+::
Resumes reading after a call to +pause()+.

+connection.setTimeout(timeout)+::
Sets the connection to timeout after +timeout+ milliseconds of inactivity on
the connection. By default all +tcp.Connection+ objects have a timeout
of 60 seconds (60000 ms).
+
If +timeout+ is 0, then the idle timeout is disabled.

+connection.setNoDelay(noDelay=true)+::
Disables the Nagle algorithm. By default TCP connections use the Nagle
algorithm, they buffer data before sending it off. Setting +noDelay+ will
immediately fire off data each time +connection.write()+ is called.

+connection.verifyPeer()+::
Returns an integer indicating the trusted status of the peer in a TLS
connection.
+
Returns 1 if the peer's certificate is issued by one of the trusted CAs,
the certificate has not been revoked, is in the issued date range,
and if the peer is the server, matches the hostname.
+
Returns 0 if no certificate was presented by the peer, or negative result
if the verification fails (with a given reason code). This function is synchronous.

+connection.getPeerCertificate(format)+::
For a TLS connection, returns the peer's certificate information, as defined
by the given format.
+
A format of "DNstring" gives a single string with the combined Distinguished
Name (DN) from the certificate, as comma delimited name=value pairs as defined
in RFC2253. This function is synchronous.

== DNS module

Use +require("dns")+ to access this module.

Here is an example which resolves +"www.google.com"+ then reverse
resolves the IP addresses which are returned.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
var dns = require("dns"),
    sys = require("sys");

dns.resolve4("www.google.com", function (err, addresses, ttl, cname) {
  if (err) throw err;

  sys.puts("addresses: " + JSON.stringify(addresses));
  sys.puts("ttl: " + JSON.stringify(ttl));
  sys.puts("cname: " + JSON.stringify(cname));

  for (var i = 0; i < addresses.length; i++) {
    var a = addresses[i];
    dns.reverse(a, function (err, domains, ttl, cname) {
      if (err) {
        puts("reverse for " + a + " failed: " + e.message);
      } else {
        sys.puts("reverse for " + a + ": " + JSON.stringify(domains));
      }
    });
  }
});
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+dns.resolve(domain, rrtype = 'A', callback)+::

Resolves a domain (e.g. +"google.com"+) into an array of the record types
specified by rrtype. Valid rrtypes are +A+ (IPV4 addresses), +AAAA+ (IPV6
addresses), +MX+ (mail exchange records), +TXT+ (text records), +SRV+
(SRV records), and +PTR+ (used for reverse IP lookups).
+
The callback has arguments +(err, addresses, ttl, cname)+.  +ttl+
(time-to-live) is an integer specifying the number of seconds this result is
valid for. +cname+ is the canonical name for the query.  The type of each
item in +addresses+ is determined by the record type, and
described in the documentation for the corresponding lookup methods below.
+
On error, +err+ would be an instanceof +Error+ object, where +err.errno+ is
one of the error codes listed below and +err.message+ is a string describing
the error in English.


+dns.resolve4(domain, callback)+::

The same as +dns.resolve()+, but only for IPv4 queries (+A+ records).
+addresses+ is an array of IPv4 addresses (e.g.  +["74.125.79.104",
"74.125.79.105", "74.125.79.106"]+).

+dns.resolve6(domain, callback)+::

The same as +dns.resolve4()+ except for IPv6 queries (an +AAAA+ query).


+dns.resolveMx(domain, callback)+::

The same as +dns.resolve()+, but only for mail exchange queries (+MX+ records).
+addresses+ is an array of MX records, each with a priority and an exchange
attribute (e.g. +[{"priority": 10, "exchange": "mx.example.com"},...]+).

+dns.resolveTxt(domain, callback)+::

The same as +dns.resolve()+, but only for text queries (+TXT+ records).
+addresses+ is an array of the text records available for +domain+ (e.g.,
+["v=spf1 ip4:0.0.0.0 ~all"]+).

+dns.resolveSrv(domain, callback)+::

The same as +dns.resolve()+, but only for service records (+SRV+ records).
+addresses+ is an array of the SRV records available for +domain+. Properties
of SRV records are priority, weight, port, and name (e.g., +[{"priority": 10,
{"weight": 5, "port": 21223, "name": "service.example.com"}, ...]+).

+dns.reverse(ip, callback)+::

Reverse resolves an ip address to an array of domain names.
+
The callback has arguments +(err, domains, ttl, cname)+. +ttl+ (time-to-live) is an integer
specifying the number of seconds this result is valid for. +cname+ is the
canonical name for the query. +domains+ is an array of domains.
+
If there an an error, +err+ will be non-null and an instanceof the Error
object.


Each DNS query can return an error code.

- +dns.TEMPFAIL+: timeout, SERVFAIL or similar.
- +dns.PROTOCOL+: got garbled reply.
- +dns.NXDOMAIN+: domain does not exists.
- +dns.NODATA+: domain exists but no data of reqd type.
- +dns.NOMEM+: out of memory while processing.
- +dns.BADQUERY+: the query is malformed.


== Assert Module

This module is used for writing unit tests for your applications, you can access it with +require("assert")+.

+assert.fail(actual, expected, message, operator)+::
Tests if +actual+ is equal to +expected+ using the operator provided.

+assert.ok(value, message)+::
Tests if value is a +true+ value, it is equivilant to +assert.equal(true, value, message);+

+assert.equal(actual, expected, message)+::
Tests shallow, coercive equality with the equal comparison operator ( +==+ ).

+assert.notEqual(actual, expected, message)+::
Tests shallow, coercive non-equality with the not equal comparison operator ( +!=+ ).

+assert.deepEqual(actual, expected, message)+::
Tests for deep equality.

+assert.notDeepEqual(actual, expected, message)+::
Tests for any deep inequality.

+assert.strictEqual(actual, expected, message)+::
Tests strict equality, as determined by the strict equality operator ( +===+ )

+assert.notStrictEqual(actual, expected, message)+::
Tests strict non-equality, as determined by the strict not equal operator ( +!==+ )

+assert.throws(block, error, message)+::
Expects +block+ to throw an error.

+assert.doesNotThrow(block, error, message)+::
Expects +block+ not to throw an error.


== Path Module

This module contains utilities for dealing with file paths.  Use
+require("path")+ to use it.  It provides the following methods:

+path.join(/* path1, path2, ... */)+::
Join all arguments together and resolve the resulting path.  Example:
+
------------------------------------
node> require("path").join("/foo", "bar", "baz/asdf", "quux", "..")
"/foo/bar/baz/asdf"
------------------------------------
+

+path.normalizeArray(arr)+::
Normalize an array of path parts, taking care of +".."+ and +"."+ parts.  Example:
+
------------------------------------
path.normalizeArray(["",
  "foo", "bar", "baz", "asdf", "quux", ".."])
// returns
[
  "",
  "foo",
  "bar",
  "baz",
  "asdf"
]
------------------------------------
+

+path.normalize(p)+::
Normalize a string path, taking care of +".."+ and +"."+ parts.  Example:
+
------------------------------------
path.normalize("/foo/bar/baz/asdf/quux/..")
// returns
"/foo/bar/baz/asdf"
------------------------------------
+

+path.dirname(p)+::
Return the directory name of a path.  Similar to the Unix +dirname+ command.  Example:
+
------------------------------------
path.dirname("/foo/bar/baz/asdf/quux")
// returns
"/foo/bar/baz/asdf"
------------------------------------
+

+path.basename(p, ext)+::
Return the last portion of a path.  Similar to the Unix +basename+ command.  Example:
+
------------------------------------
path.basename("/foo/bar/baz/asdf/quux.html")
// returns
"quux.html"

path.basename("/foo/bar/baz/asdf/quux.html", ".html")
// returns
"quux"
------------------------------------
+

+path.extname(p)+::
Return the extension of the path.  Everything after the last '.', if there
is no '.' then it returns an empty string.  Examples:
+
------------------------------------
path.extname("index.html")
// returns
".html"

path.extname("index")
// returns
""
------------------------------------
+

+path.exists(p, callback)+::
Test whether or not the given path exists.  Then, call the +callback+ argument with either true or false.  Example:
+
------------------------------------
path.exists("/etc/passwd", function (exists) {
  sys.debug(exists ? "it's there" : "no passwd!");
});
------------------------------------


== URL Module

This module has utilities for URL resolution and parsing.

Parsed URL objects have some or all of the following fields, depending on whether or not
they exist in the URL string.  Any parts that are not in the URL string will not be in the
parsed object.  Examples are shown for the URL +"http://user:pass@host.com:8080/p/a/t/h?query=string#hash"+

+href+::
The full URL that was originally parsed. Example: +"http://user:pass@host.com:8080/p/a/t/h?query=string#hash"+

+protocol+::
The request protocol.  Example: +"http:"+

+host+::
The full host portion of the URL, including port and authentication information. Example:
+"user:pass@host.com:8080"+

+auth+::
The authentication information portion of a URL.  Example: +"user:pass"+

+hostname+::
Just the hostname portion of the host.  Example: +"host.com"+

+port+::
The port number portion of the host.  Example: +"8080"+

+pathname+::
The path section of the URL, that comes after the host and before the query, including the
initial slash if present.  Example: +"/p/a/t/h"+

+search+::
The "query string" portion of the URL, including the leading question mark. Example:
+"?query=string"+

+query+::
Either the "params" portion of the query string, or a querystring-parsed object. Example:
+"query=string"+ or +{"query":"string"}+

+hash+::
The "fragment" portion of the URL including the pound-sign. Example: +"#hash"+

The following methods are provided by the URL module:

+url.parse(urlStr, parseQueryString=false)+::
Take a URL string, and return an object.  Pass +true+ as the second argument to also parse
the query string using the +querystring+ module.

+url.format(urlObj)+::
Take a parsed URL object, and return a formatted URL string.

+url.resolve(from, to)+::
Take a base URL, and a href URL, and resolve them as a browser would for an anchor tag.


== Query String Module

This module provides utilities for dealing with query strings.  It provides the following methods:

+querystring.stringify(obj, sep="&", eq="=")+::
Serialize an object to a query string.  Optionally override the default separator and assignment characters.
Example:
+
------------------------------------
querystring.stringify({foo: 'bar'})
// returns
"foo=bar"
------------------------------------
+

+querystring.parse(str, sep="&", eq="=")+::
Deserialize a query string to an object.  Optionally override the default separator and assignment characters.
+
------------------------------------
querystring.parse('a=b&b=c')
// returns
{ 'a': 'b'
, 'b': 'c'
}
------------------------------------
+

+querystring.escape+::
The escape function used by +querystring.stringify+, provided so that it could be overridden if necessary.

+querystring.unescape+::
The unescape function used by +querystring.parse+, provided so that it could be overridden if necessary.

== REPL

A Read-Eval-Print-Loop is available both as a standalone program and easily
includable in other programs.

The standalone REPL is called +node-repl+ and is installed at
+$PREFIX/bin/node-repl+. It's recommended to use it with the program
+rlwrap+ for a better user interface. I set
------------------------------------
alias node-repl="rlwrap node-repl"
------------------------------------
in my zsh configuration.

Inside the REPL, Control+D will exit. The special variable +_+ (underscore) contains the
result of the last expression.

The library is called +/repl.js+ and it can be used like this:
------------------------------------
var sys = require("sys"),
    tcp = require("tcp"),
   repl = require("repl");
nconnections = 0;
tcp.createServer(function (c) {
  sys.error("Connection!");
  nconnections += 1;
  c.close();
}).listen(5000);
repl.start("simple tcp server> ");
------------------------------------
The repl provides access to any variables in the global scope. You can expose a variable
to the repl explicitly by assigning it to the +repl.scope+ object:
------------------------------------
var count = 5;
repl.start();
repl.scope.count = count;
------------------------------------

== Addons

Addons are dynamically linked shared objects. They can provide glue to C and
C++ libraries. The API (at the moment) is rather complex, involving
knowledge of several libraries:

 - V8 JavaScript, a C++ library. Used for interfacing with JavaScript:
   creating objects, calling functions, etc.  Documented mostly in the
   +v8.h+ header file (+deps/v8/include/v8.h+ in the Node source tree).

 - libev, C event loop library. Anytime one needs to wait for a file
   descriptor to become readable, wait for a timer, or wait for a signal to
   received one will need to interface with libev.  That is, if you perform
   any I/O, libev will need to be used.  Node uses the +EV_DEFAULT+ event
   loop.  Documentation can be found http:/cvs.schmorp.de/libev/ev.html[here].

 - libeio, C thread pool library. Used to execute blocking POSIX system
   calls asynchronously. Mostly wrappers already exist for such calls, in
   +src/file.cc+ so you will probably not need to use it. If you do need it,
   look at the header file +deps/libeio/eio.h+.

 - Internal Node libraries. Most importantly is the +node::EventEmitter+
   class which you will likely want to derive from.

 - Others. Look in +deps/+ for what else is available.

Node statically compiles all its dependencies into the executable. When
compiling your module, you don't need to worry about linking to any of these
libraries.

To get started let's make a small Addon which does the following except in
C++:
-----------------------------------------------------
exports.hello = "world";
-----------------------------------------------------

To get started we create a file +hello.cc+:
-----------------------------------------------------
#include <v8.h>

using namespace v8;

extern "C" void
init (Handle<Object> target)
{
  HandleScope scope;
  target->Set(String::New("hello"), String::New("World"));
}
-----------------------------------------------------

This source code needs to be built into +hello.node+, the binary Addon. To
do this we create a file called +wscript+ which is python code and looks
like this:
-----------------------------------------------------
srcdir = "."
blddir = "build"
VERSION = "0.0.1"

def set_options(opt):
  opt.tool_options("compiler_cxx")

def configure(conf):
  conf.check_tool("compiler_cxx")
  conf.check_tool("node_addon")

def build(bld):
  obj = bld.new_task_gen("cxx", "shlib", "node_addon")
  obj.target = "hello"
  obj.source = "hello.cc"
-----------------------------------------------------
Running +node-waf configure build+ will create a file
+build/default/hello.node+ which is our Addon.

+node-waf+ is just http://code.google.com/p/waf/[WAF], the python-based build system. +node-waf+ is
provided for the ease of users.

All Node addons must export a function called +init+ with this signature:
-----------------------------------------------------
extern "C" void init (Handle<Object> target)
-----------------------------------------------------

For the moment, that is all the documentation on addons. Please see
http://github.com/ry/node_postgres[node_postgres] for a real example.

// vim: set syntax=asciidoc: