__dirname and __filename for ES Modules on Node.js

Node.js v13.2.0 was released which shipped support for ES Modules. 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 migration from commonjs to ES Modules smooth, dirname-filename-esm provides functions to create __dirname and __filename variables easily in ES Modules environment.

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 under 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.

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 es2020 or later in your tsconfig.json.

License

the MIT License