Node globals are not accesible in module definition

[ghost]

There was a discussion about this issue a while ago, which resulted in this file: http://www.requirejs.org/temp/dirfile/r.js. However, it seems those changes have not been committed to the main branch.

It it possible to have all of http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.4.5/api/globals.html available?

[jrburke]

I believe I changed the approach to Node integration since that first dirfile file was put up -- I decided it was better to not try to keep up with node internals, which would require constant gardening. That said, I expect most of those globals to work except for the items on require, and for __filename and __dirname. However, CommonJS specified that "module.uri" has the path to the file, I expect that can serve the purpose of __filename, and means the code would be more portable to other environments like Rhino.

Is it __filename and __dirname you are missing or something else?

[Xavura]

I also noticed that __filename and __dirname were missing. Could those be added, at least?

[jrburke]

I would like to understand the use case some more, it may be something I have not considered before:

Are you authoring your own modules with a define(){} wrapper that use them, or have you converted existing modules created for Node to have a define() wrapper?

[ghost]

No, I am not intending to convert existing Node modules. I am trying to use define() for my own modules and currently need only __dirname. The use case is similar to that presented here http://expressjs.com/guide.html#configuration.

As I am new to Node and RequireJS, there might be other ways to get current module path/uri, which I don't know about. Any hints would be appreciated.

Regarding other global references, the process object seems to be reachable via global (global.process). setTimeout(cb, ms) and friends are available from Timers module (http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.4.5/api/timers.htm). The remaining ones look unnecessary at the moment.

[neonstalwart]

i think module.filename will have the filename and then you can use require('path').dirname(module.filename) if you really need it. i haven't verified - this is just from looking at https://github.com/joyent/node/blob/master/lib/module.js

[ghost]

Unfortunately, module is undefined inside define()'s callback and I can't find anything that would expose the filename.

[jrburke]

If you do the following, you should be able to get the path and dir for the current module:

define(['module', 'path'], function (module, path) {
    console.log("module's path is: " + module.uri);
    console.log("module's dir is: " + path.dirname(module.uri));
});

This has the benefit that, if you provide a path module for the browser, that it could run in the browser with RequireJS.

[jrburke]

I should note: that 'module', 'exports', and 'require' are all special dependency array values that map to the CommonJS ideas of module, exports and require.

[ghost]

I should note: that 'module', 'exports', and 'require' are all special dependency array values that map to the CommonJS ideas of module, exports and require.

Didn't know about those. Thanks for clarification. I think the issue can be closed if nobody objects.

[jrburke]

Closing per opener's request.