Nodejs absolute paths in windows with forward slash

Question

Can I have absolute paths with forward slashes in windows in nodejs? I am using something like this :

global.__base = __dirname + '/';
var Article = require(__base + 'app/models/article');

But on windows the build is failing as it is requiring something like C:\Something\Something/apps/models/article. I aam using webpack. So how to circumvent this issue so that the requiring remains the same i.e. __base + 'app/models/src'?

Peter

nodejs.org/api/path.html – Pember

@Pember as I said I doont want to change how I require the module – Peter

If you don't want to change your code, what do you expect us to do? – Pember

I was talking about alernative way around global.__base = __dirname + '/';. I am willing to change that as that happens only once in the code – Peter

You are still fixing / as the separator in app/models/article. I don't know whether or not C:\Something\Something/apps/models/article works on Windows (I never develop for it), but path.join(__dirname, 'app', 'models', 'article') does. – Pember

Answer 1

I know it is a bit late to answer but I think my answer will help some visitors.

In Node.js you can easily get your current running file name and its directory by just using __filename and __dirname variables respectively.

In order to correct the forward and back slash accordingly to your system you can use path module of Node.js

var path = require('path');

Like here is a messed path and I want it to be correct if I want to use it on my server. Here the path module do everything for you

var randomPath = "desktop//my folder/\myfile.txt";

var correctedPath = path.normalize(randomPath); //that's that

console.log(correctedPath);

desktop/my folder/myfile.txt

If you want the absolute path of a file then you can also use resolve function of path module

var somePath = "./img.jpg";
var resolvedPath = path.resolve(somePath);

console.log(resolvedPath);

/Users/vikasbansal/Desktop/temp/img.jpg

Pokeweed

@VikasBansat: path.normalize(path.resolve('./')) - is effectively the way you suggest. However this does not resolve the issue under Windows 8 (at least). – Melodymeloid

This doesn't work, at all. Backslashes remain backslashes. – Precedential

This only works for UNIX systems. For Windows, default path delimiter is backslash – Neuroma

After testing, this doesn't work on windows. Slashes still remain backward with this. This answer should not be the accepted one, because it doesn't solve the problem for Windows, for which it was asked for. – Fife

Answer 2

it's 2020, 5 years from the question was published, but I hope that for somebody my answer will be useful. I've used the replace method, here is my code(express js project):

const viewPath = (path.join(__dirname, '../views/')).replace(/\\/g, '/')

exports.articlesList = function(req, res) {
    res.sendFile(viewPath + 'articlesList.html');
} 

Eiffel

works nicely for me to insert the forward slashed path into a database – Loraleeloralie

Answer 3

The accepted answer doesn't actually answer the question most people come here for. If you're looking to normalize all path separators (possibly for string work), here's what you need.

All the code segments have the node.js built-in module path imported to the path variable. They also have the variable they work from stored in the immutable variable str, unless otherwise specified.

If you have a string, here's a quick one-liner normalize the string to a forward slash (/):

const answer = path.resolve(str).split(path.sep).join("/");

You can normalize to any other separator by replacing the forward slash (/).

If you want just an array of the parts of the path, use this:

const answer = path.resolve(str).split(path.sep);

Once you're done with your string work, use this to create a path able to be used:

const answer = path.resolve(str);

From an array, use this:

// assume the array is stored in constant variable arr
const answer = path.join(...arr);

Cardwell

Answer 4

I finally did it like this:

var slash = require('slash');
var dirname = __dirname;
if (process.platform === 'win32') dirname = slash(dirname);

global.__base = dirname + '/';

And then to require var Article = require(__base + 'app/models/article');. This uses the npm package slash (which replaces backslashes by slashes in paths and handles some more cases)

Peter

I'd rather recommend using nodejs.org/api/path.html#path_path_sep which is the very purpose of this feature ;) And make it a one-liner! – Communicative

@Communicative Thanks for this! Never heard about path.sep before - it was just what is was looking for! – Burned

Thanks for reminding me this solution exists, I had completely forgotten about it ^^' – Communicative

Answer 5

This is the approach I use, to save some processing:

const path = require('path');

// normalize based on the OS
const normalizePath = (value: string): string {
  return path.sep === '\' 
    ? value.replace(/\\/g, '/')
    : value;
}

console.log('abc/def'); // leaves as is
console.log('abc\def'); // on windows converts to `abc/def`, otherwise leave as is

Handily

Answer 6

It is already too late but the actual answer is using path.sep or path.join depends on the requirement.

In Windows directory path will be "" and Linux "/" so the path library will do this work automatically.

const path = require("path");
const abPath = path.join(__base ,'app','models','article')

OR

const path = require("path");
const abPath = __base + 'app'+ path.sep +'models'+ path.sep +'article';

Swirl

Answer 7

I recommend against this, as it is patching node itself, but... well, no changes in how you require things.

(function() {
  "use strict";
  var path = require('path');
  var oldRequire = require;
  require = function(module) {
    var fixedModule = path.join.apply(path, module.split(/\/|\\/));
    oldRequire(fixedModule);
  }
})();

Pember

Answer 8

Use path module

const path = require("path");
var str = "test\test1 (1).txt";
console.log(str.split(path.sep)) // This is only on Windows

Monocyte

Answer 9

Windows uses \, Linux and mac use / for path prefixes

For Windows : 'C:\\Results\\user1\\file_23_15_30.xlsx'

For Mac/Linux: /Users/user1/file_23_15_30.xlsx

If the file has \ - it is windows, use fileSeparator as \, else use /

let path=__dirname; // or filePath
fileSeparator=path.includes('\')?"\":"/"  
newFilePath = __dirname + fileSeparator + "fileName.csv";

Kazantzakis