The process.stdout property returns a stream connected tostdout (fd 1). It is a net.Socket (which is a Duplex stream) unless fd 1 refers to a file, in which case it is a Writable stream.

For example, to copy process.stdin to process.stdout:

import { stdin, stdout } from 'node:process';

stdin.pipe(stdout);

process.stdout differs from other Node.js streams in important ways. See note on process I/O for more information.

The process.stderr property returns a stream connected tostderr (fd 2). It is a net.Socket (which is a Duplex stream) unless fd 2 refers to a file, in which case it is a Writable stream.

process.stderr differs from other Node.js streams in important ways. See note on process I/O for more information.

The process.stdin property returns a stream connected tostdin (fd 0). It is a net.Socket (which is a Duplex stream) unless fd 0 refers to a file, in which case it is a Readable stream.

For details of how to read from stdin see readable.read().

As a Duplex stream, process.stdin can also be used in "old" mode that is compatible with scripts written for Node.js prior to v0.10. For more information see Stream compatibility.

In "old" streams mode the stdin stream is paused by default, so one must call process.stdin.resume() to read from it. Note also that callingprocess.stdin.resume() itself would switch stream to "old" mode.

The process.argv property returns an array containing the command-line arguments passed when the Node.js process was launched. The first element will be execPath. See process.argv0 if access to the original value of argv[0] is needed. The second element will be the path to the JavaScript file being executed. The remaining elements will be any additional command-line arguments.

For example, assuming the following script for process-args.js:

import { argv } from 'node:process';

// print process.argv
argv.forEach((val, index) => {
  console.log(`${index}: ${val}`);
});

Launching the Node.js process as:

node process-args.js one two=three four

Would generate the output:

0: /usr/local/bin/node
1: /Users/mjr/work/node/process-args.js
2: one
3: two=three
4: four

The process.argv0 property stores a read-only copy of the original value ofargv[0] passed when Node.js starts.

$ bash -c 'exec -a customArgv0 ./node'
> process.argv[0]
'/Volumes/code/external/node/out/Release/node'
> process.argv0
'customArgv0'

The process.execArgv property returns the set of Node.js-specific command-line options passed when the Node.js process was launched. These options do not appear in the array returned by the argv property, and do not include the Node.js executable, the name of the script, or any options following the script name. These options are useful in order to spawn child processes with the same execution environment as the parent.

node --harmony script.js --version

Results in process.execArgv:

['--harmony']

And process.argv:

['/usr/local/bin/node', 'script.js', '--version']

Refer to Worker constructor for the detailed behavior of worker threads with this property.

The process.execPath property returns the absolute pathname of the executable that started the Node.js process. Symbolic links, if any, are resolved.

'/usr/local/bin/node'

The port used by the Node.js debugger when enabled.

import process from 'node:process';

process.debugPort = 5858;

The process.env property returns an object containing the user environment. See environ(7).

An example of this object looks like:

{
  TERM: 'xterm-256color',
  SHELL: '/usr/local/bin/bash',
  USER: 'maciej',
  PATH: '~/.bin/:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin',
  PWD: '/Users/maciej',
  EDITOR: 'vim',
  SHLVL: '1',
  HOME: '/Users/maciej',
  LOGNAME: 'maciej',
  _: '/usr/local/bin/node'
}

It is possible to modify this object, but such modifications will not be reflected outside the Node.js process, or (unless explicitly requested) to other Worker threads. In other words, the following example would not work:

node -e 'process.env.foo = "bar"' && echo $foo

While the following will:

import { env } from 'node:process';

env.foo = 'bar';
console.log(env.foo);

Assigning a property on process.env will implicitly convert the value to a string. This behavior is deprecated. Future versions of Node.js may throw an error when the value is not a string, number, or boolean.

import { env } from 'node:process';

env.test = null;
console.log(env.test);
// => 'null'
env.test = undefined;
console.log(env.test);
// => 'undefined'

Use delete to delete a property from process.env.

import { env } from 'node:process';

env.TEST = 1;
delete env.TEST;
console.log(env.TEST);
// => undefined

On Windows operating systems, environment variables are case-insensitive.

import { env } from 'node:process';

env.TEST = 1;
console.log(env.test);
// => 1

Unless explicitly specified when creating a Worker instance, each Worker thread has its own copy of process.env, based on its parent thread's process.env, or whatever was specified as the env option to the Worker constructor. Changes to process.env will not be visible across Worker threads, and only the main thread can make changes that are visible to the operating system or to native add-ons. On Windows, a copy ofprocess.env on a Worker instance operates in a case-sensitive manner unlike the main thread.

A number which will be the process exit code, when the process either exits gracefully, or is exited via exit without specifying a code.

Specifying a code to exit will override any previous setting of process.exitCode.

The process.getgid() method returns the numerical group identity of the process. (See getgid(2).)

import process from 'process';

if (process.getgid) {
  console.log(`Current gid: ${process.getgid()}`);
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android).

The process.setgid() method sets the group identity of the process. (See setgid(2).) The id can be passed as either a numeric ID or a group name string. If a group name is specified, this method blocks while resolving the associated numeric ID.

import process from 'process';

if (process.getgid && process.setgid) {
  console.log(`Current gid: ${process.getgid()}`);
  try {
    process.setgid(501);
    console.log(`New gid: ${process.getgid()}`);
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(`Failed to set gid: ${err}`);
  }
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android). This feature is not available in Worker threads.

The process.getuid() method returns the numeric user identity of the process. (See getuid(2).)

import process from 'process';

if (process.getuid) {
  console.log(`Current uid: ${process.getuid()}`);
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android).

The process.setuid(id) method sets the user identity of the process. (See setuid(2).) The id can be passed as either a numeric ID or a username string. If a username is specified, the method blocks while resolving the associated numeric ID.

import process from 'process';

if (process.getuid && process.setuid) {
  console.log(`Current uid: ${process.getuid()}`);
  try {
    process.setuid(501);
    console.log(`New uid: ${process.getuid()}`);
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(`Failed to set uid: ${err}`);
  }
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android). This feature is not available in Worker threads.

The process.geteuid() method returns the numerical effective user identity of the process. (See geteuid(2).)

import process from 'process';

if (process.geteuid) {
  console.log(`Current uid: ${process.geteuid()}`);
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android).

The process.seteuid() method sets the effective user identity of the process. (See seteuid(2).) The id can be passed as either a numeric ID or a username string. If a username is specified, the method blocks while resolving the associated numeric ID.

import process from 'process';

if (process.geteuid && process.seteuid) {
  console.log(`Current uid: ${process.geteuid()}`);
  try {
    process.seteuid(501);
    console.log(`New uid: ${process.geteuid()}`);
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(`Failed to set uid: ${err}`);
  }
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android). This feature is not available in Worker threads.

The process.getegid() method returns the numerical effective group identity of the Node.js process. (See getegid(2).)

import process from 'process';

if (process.getegid) {
  console.log(`Current gid: ${process.getegid()}`);
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android).

The process.setegid() method sets the effective group identity of the process. (See setegid(2).) The id can be passed as either a numeric ID or a group name string. If a group name is specified, this method blocks while resolving the associated a numeric ID.

import process from 'process';

if (process.getegid && process.setegid) {
  console.log(`Current gid: ${process.getegid()}`);
  try {
    process.setegid(501);
    console.log(`New gid: ${process.getegid()}`);
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(`Failed to set gid: ${err}`);
  }
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android). This feature is not available in Worker threads.

The process.getgroups() method returns an array with the supplementary group IDs. POSIX leaves it unspecified if the effective group ID is included but Node.js ensures it always is.

import process from 'process';

if (process.getgroups) {
  console.log(process.getgroups()); // [ 16, 21, 297 ]
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android).

The process.setgroups() method sets the supplementary group IDs for the Node.js process. This is a privileged operation that requires the Node.js process to have root or the CAP_SETGID capability.

The groups array can contain numeric group IDs, group names, or both.

import process from 'process';

if (process.getgroups && process.setgroups) {
  try {
    process.setgroups([501]);
    console.log(process.getgroups()); // new groups
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(`Failed to set groups: ${err}`);
  }
}

This function is only available on POSIX platforms (i.e. not Windows or Android). This feature is not available in Worker threads.

The process.sourceMapsEnabled property returns whether the Source Map v3 support for stack traces is enabled.

The process.version property contains the Node.js version string.

import { version } from 'node:process';

console.log(`Version: ${version}`);
// Version: v14.8.0

To get the version string without the prepended v, useprocess.versions.node.

The process.versions property returns an object listing the version strings of Node.js and its dependencies. process.versions.modules indicates the current ABI version, which is increased whenever a C++ API changes. Node.js will refuse to load modules that were compiled against a different module ABI version.

import { versions } from 'node:process';

console.log(versions);

Will generate an object similar to:

{ node: '20.2.0',
  acorn: '8.8.2',
  ada: '2.4.0',
  ares: '1.19.0',
  base64: '0.5.0',
  brotli: '1.0.9',
  cjs_module_lexer: '1.2.2',
  cldr: '43.0',
  icu: '73.1',
  llhttp: '8.1.0',
  modules: '115',
  napi: '8',
  nghttp2: '1.52.0',
  nghttp3: '0.7.0',
  ngtcp2: '0.8.1',
  openssl: '3.0.8+quic',
  simdutf: '3.2.9',
  tz: '2023c',
  undici: '5.22.0',
  unicode: '15.0',
  uv: '1.44.2',
  uvwasi: '0.0.16',
  v8: '11.3.244.8-node.9',
  zlib: '1.2.13' }

The process.config property returns a frozen Object containing the JavaScript representation of the configure options used to compile the current Node.js executable. This is the same as the config.gypi file that was produced when running the ./configure script.

An example of the possible output looks like:

{
  target_defaults:
   { cflags: [],
     default_configuration: 'Release',
     defines: [],
     include_dirs: [],
     libraries: [] },
  variables:
   {
     host_arch: 'x64',
     napi_build_version: 5,
     node_install_npm: 'true',
     node_prefix: '',
     node_shared_cares: 'false',
     node_shared_http_parser: 'false',
     node_shared_libuv: 'false',
     node_shared_zlib: 'false',
     node_use_openssl: 'true',
     node_shared_openssl: 'false',
     strict_aliasing: 'true',
     target_arch: 'x64',
     v8_use_snapshot: 1
   }
}

The process.pid property returns the PID of the process.

import { pid } from 'node:process';

console.log(`This process is pid ${pid}`);

The process.ppid property returns the PID of the parent of the current process.

import { ppid } from 'node:process';

console.log(`The parent process is pid ${ppid}`);

The process.title property returns the current process title (i.e. returns the current value of ps). Assigning a new value to process.title modifies the current value of ps.

When a new value is assigned, different platforms will impose different maximum length restrictions on the title. Usually such restrictions are quite limited. For instance, on Linux and macOS, process.title is limited to the size of the binary name plus the length of the command-line arguments because setting theprocess.title overwrites the argv memory of the process. Node.js v0.8 allowed for longer process title strings by also overwriting the environmemory but that was potentially insecure and confusing in some (rather obscure) cases.

Assigning a value to process.title might not result in an accurate label within process manager applications such as macOS Activity Monitor or Windows Services Manager.

The operating system CPU architecture for which the Node.js binary was compiled. Possible values are: 'arm', 'arm64', 'ia32', 'loong64', 'mips','mipsel', 'ppc', 'ppc64', 'riscv64', 's390', 's390x', and 'x64'.

import { arch } from 'node:process';

console.log(`This processor architecture is ${arch}`);

The process.platform property returns a string identifying the operating system platform for which the Node.js binary was compiled.

Currently possible values are:

• 'aix'
• 'darwin'
• 'freebsd'
• 'linux'
• 'openbsd'
• 'sunos'
• 'win32'

import { platform } from 'node:process';

console.log(`This platform is ${platform}`);

The value 'android' may also be returned if the Node.js is built on the Android operating system. However, Android support in Node.js is experimental.

The process.mainModule property provides an alternative way of retrieving require.main. The difference is that if the main module changes at runtime, require.main may still refer to the original main module in modules that were required before the change occurred. Generally, it's safe to assume that the two refer to the same module.

As with require.main, process.mainModule will be undefined if there is no entry script.

The process.release property returns an Object containing metadata related to the current release, including URLs for the source tarball and headers-only tarball.

process.release contains the following properties:

{
  name: 'node',
  lts: 'Hydrogen',
  sourceUrl: 'https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.12.0/node-v18.12.0.tar.gz',
  headersUrl: 'https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.12.0/node-v18.12.0-headers.tar.gz',
  libUrl: 'https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.12.0/win-x64/node.lib'
}

In custom builds from non-release versions of the source tree, only thename property may be present. The additional properties should not be relied upon to exist.

If the Node.js process was spawned with an IPC channel, the process.channel property is a reference to the IPC channel. If no IPC channel exists, this property is undefined.

If the Node.js process is spawned with an IPC channel (see the Child Process and Cluster documentation), the process.connected property will returntrue so long as the IPC channel is connected and will return false afterprocess.disconnect() is called.

Once process.connected is false, it is no longer possible to send messages over the IPC channel using process.send().

The process.allowedNodeEnvironmentFlags property is a special, read-only Set of flags allowable within the NODE_OPTIONS environment variable.

process.allowedNodeEnvironmentFlags extends Set, but overridesSet.prototype.has to recognize several different possible flag representations. process.allowedNodeEnvironmentFlags.has() will return true in the following cases:

• Flags may omit leading single (-) or double (--) dashes; e.g.,inspect-brk for --inspect-brk, or r for -r.
• Flags passed through to V8 (as listed in --v8-options) may replace one or more non-leading dashes for an underscore, or vice-versa; e.g., --perf_basic_prof, --perf-basic-prof, --perf_basic-prof, etc.
• Flags may contain one or more equals (=) characters; all characters after and including the first equals will be ignored; e.g., --stack-trace-limit=100.
• Flags must be allowable within NODE_OPTIONS.

When iterating over process.allowedNodeEnvironmentFlags, flags will appear only once; each will begin with one or more dashes. Flags passed through to V8 will contain underscores instead of non-leading dashes:

import { allowedNodeEnvironmentFlags } from 'node:process';

allowedNodeEnvironmentFlags.forEach((flag) => {
  // -r
  // --inspect-brk
  // --abort_on_uncaught_exception
  // ...
});

The methods add(), clear(), and delete() ofprocess.allowedNodeEnvironmentFlags do nothing, and will fail silently.

If Node.js was compiled without NODE_OPTIONS support (shown in config), process.allowedNodeEnvironmentFlags will contain what would have been allowable.

process.report is an object whose methods are used to generate diagnostic reports for the current process. Additional documentation is available in the report documentation.

The process.traceDeprecation property indicates whether the--trace-deprecation flag is set on the current Node.js process. See the documentation for the 'warning' event and the emitWarning() method for more information about this flag's behavior.

The process.abort() method causes the Node.js process to exit immediately and generate a core file.

This feature is not available in Worker threads.

The process.chdir() method changes the current working directory of the Node.js process or throws an exception if doing so fails (for instance, if the specified directory does not exist).

import { chdir, cwd } from 'node:process';

console.log(`Starting directory: ${cwd()}`);
try {
  chdir('/tmp');
  console.log(`New directory: ${cwd()}`);
} catch (err) {
  console.error(`chdir: ${err}`);
}

This feature is not available in Worker threads.

The process.cwd() method returns the current working directory of the Node.js process.

import { cwd } from 'node:process';

console.log(`Current directory: ${cwd()}`);

The process.emitWarning() method can be used to emit custom or application specific process warnings. These can be listened for by adding a handler to the 'warning' event.

import { emitWarning } from 'node:process';

// Emit a warning with a code and additional detail.
emitWarning('Something happened!', {
  code: 'MY_WARNING',
  detail: 'This is some additional information',
});
// Emits:
// (node:56338) [MY_WARNING] Warning: Something happened!
// This is some additional information

In this example, an Error object is generated internally byprocess.emitWarning() and passed through to the 'warning' handler.

import process from 'node:process';

process.on('warning', (warning) => {
  console.warn(warning.name);    // 'Warning'
  console.warn(warning.message); // 'Something happened!'
  console.warn(warning.code);    // 'MY_WARNING'
  console.warn(warning.stack);   // Stack trace
  console.warn(warning.detail);  // 'This is some additional information'
});

If warning is passed as an Error object, the options argument is ignored.

The process.exit() method instructs Node.js to terminate the process synchronously with an exit status of code. If code is omitted, exit uses either the 'success' code 0 or the value of process.exitCode if it has been set. Node.js will not terminate until all the 'exit' event listeners are called.

To exit with a 'failure' code:

import { exit } from 'node:process';

exit(1);

The shell that executed Node.js should see the exit code as 1.

Calling process.exit() will force the process to exit as quickly as possible even if there are still asynchronous operations pending that have not yet completed fully, including I/O operations to process.stdout andprocess.stderr.

In most situations, it is not actually necessary to call process.exit()explicitly. The Node.js process will exit on its own if there is no additional work pending in the event loop. The process.exitCode property can be set to tell the process which exit code to use when the process exits gracefully.

For instance, the following example illustrates a misuse of theprocess.exit() method that could lead to data printed to stdout being truncated and lost:

import { exit } from 'node:process';

// This is an example of what *not* to do:
if (someConditionNotMet()) {
  printUsageToStdout();
  exit(1);
}

The reason this is problematic is because writes to process.stdout in Node.js are sometimes asynchronous and may occur over multiple ticks of the Node.js event loop. Calling process.exit(), however, forces the process to exit before those additional writes to stdout can be performed.

Rather than calling process.exit() directly, the code should set theprocess.exitCode and allow the process to exit naturally by avoiding scheduling any additional work for the event loop:

import process from 'node:process';

// How to properly set the exit code while letting
// the process exit gracefully.
if (someConditionNotMet()) {
  printUsageToStdout();
  process.exitCode = 1;
}

If it is necessary to terminate the Node.js process due to an error condition, throwing an uncaught error and allowing the process to terminate accordingly is safer than calling process.exit().

In Worker threads, this function stops the current thread rather than the current process.

The process.setUncaughtExceptionCaptureCallback() function sets a function that will be invoked when an uncaught exception occurs, which will receive the exception value itself as its first argument.

If such a function is set, the 'uncaughtException' event will not be emitted. If --abort-on-uncaught-exception was passed from the command line or set through v8.setFlagsFromString(), the process will not abort. Actions configured to take place on exceptions such as report generations will be affected too

To unset the capture function,process.setUncaughtExceptionCaptureCallback(null) may be used. Calling this method with a non-null argument while another capture function is set will throw an error.

Using this function is mutually exclusive with using the deprecated domain built-in module.

Indicates whether a callback has been set using setUncaughtExceptionCaptureCallback.

This function enables or disables the Source Map v3 support for stack traces.

It provides same features as launching Node.js process with commandline options--enable-source-maps.

Only source maps in JavaScript files that are loaded after source maps has been enabled will be parsed and loaded.

The process.kill() method sends the signal to the process identified bypid.

Signal names are strings such as 'SIGINT' or 'SIGHUP'. See Signal Events and kill(2) for more information.

This method will throw an error if the target pid does not exist. As a special case, a signal of 0 can be used to test for the existence of a process. Windows platforms will throw an error if the pid is used to kill a process group.

Even though the name of this function is process.kill(), it is really just a signal sender, like the kill system call. The signal sent may do something other than kill the target process.

import process, { kill } from 'node:process';

process.on('SIGHUP', () => {
  console.log('Got SIGHUP signal.');
});

setTimeout(() => {
  console.log('Exiting.');
  process.exit(0);
}, 100);

kill(process.pid, 'SIGHUP');

When SIGUSR1 is received by a Node.js process, Node.js will start the debugger. See Signal Events.

Loads the environment configuration from a .env file into process.env. If the file is not found, error will be thrown.

To load a specific .env file by specifying its path, use the following code:

import { loadEnvFile } from 'node:process';

loadEnvFile('./development.env')

Gets the amount of memory available to the process (in bytes) based on limits imposed by the OS. If there is no such constraint, or the constraint is unknown, undefined is returned.

See uv_get_constrained_memory for more information.

The process.cpuUsage() method returns the user and system CPU time usage of the current process, in an object with properties user and system, whose values are microsecond values (millionth of a second). These values measure time spent in user and system code respectively, and may end up being greater than actual elapsed time if multiple CPU cores are performing work for this process.

The result of a previous call to process.cpuUsage() can be passed as the argument to the function, to get a diff reading.

import { cpuUsage } from 'node:process';

const startUsage = cpuUsage();
// { user: 38579, system: 6986 }

// spin the CPU for 500 milliseconds
const now = Date.now();
while (Date.now() - now < 500);

console.log(cpuUsage(startUsage));
// { user: 514883, system: 11226 }

process.nextTick() adds callback to the "next tick queue". This queue is fully drained after the current operation on the JavaScript stack runs to completion and before the event loop is allowed to continue. It's possible to create an infinite loop if one were to recursively call process.nextTick(). See the Event Loop guide for more background.

import { nextTick } from 'node:process';

console.log('start');
nextTick(() => {
  console.log('nextTick callback');
});
console.log('scheduled');
// Output:
// start
// scheduled
// nextTick callback

This is important when developing APIs in order to give users the opportunity to assign event handlers after an object has been constructed but before any I/O has occurred:

import { nextTick } from 'node:process';

function MyThing(options) {
  this.setupOptions(options);

  nextTick(() => {
    this.startDoingStuff();
  });
}

const thing = new MyThing();
thing.getReadyForStuff();

// thing.startDoingStuff() gets called now, not before.

It is very important for APIs to be either 100% synchronous or 100% asynchronous. Consider this example:

// WARNING!  DO NOT USE!  BAD UNSAFE HAZARD!
function maybeSync(arg, cb) {
  if (arg) {
    cb();
    return;
  }

  fs.stat('file', cb);
}

This API is hazardous because in the following case:

const maybeTrue = Math.random() > 0.5;

maybeSync(maybeTrue, () => {
  foo();
});

bar();

It is not clear whether foo() or bar() will be called first.

The following approach is much better:

import { nextTick } from 'node:process';

function definitelyAsync(arg, cb) {
  if (arg) {
    nextTick(cb);
    return;
  }

  fs.stat('file', cb);
}

process.umask() returns the Node.js process's file mode creation mask. Child processes inherit the mask from the parent process.

Can only be set if not in worker thread.

The process.uptime() method returns the number of seconds the current Node.js process has been running.

The return value includes fractions of a second. Use Math.floor() to get whole seconds.

If Node.js is spawned with an IPC channel, the process.send() method can be used to send messages to the parent process. Messages will be received as a 'message' event on the parent's ChildProcess object.

If Node.js was not spawned with an IPC channel, process.send will be undefined.

The message goes through serialization and parsing. The resulting message might not be the same as what is originally sent.

If the Node.js process is spawned with an IPC channel (see the Child Process and Cluster documentation), the process.disconnect() method will close the IPC channel to the parent process, allowing the child process to exit gracefully once there are no other connections keeping it alive.

The effect of calling process.disconnect() is the same as calling ChildProcess.disconnect() from the parent process.

If the Node.js process was not spawned with an IPC channel,process.disconnect() will be undefined.

import { resourceUsage } from 'node:process';

console.log(resourceUsage());
/*
  Will output:
  {
    userCPUTime: 82872,
    systemCPUTime: 4143,
    maxRSS: 33164,
    sharedMemorySize: 0,
    unsharedDataSize: 0,
    unsharedStackSize: 0,
    minorPageFault: 2469,
    majorPageFault: 0,
    swappedOut: 0,
    fsRead: 0,
    fsWrite: 8,
    ipcSent: 0,
    ipcReceived: 0,
    signalsCount: 0,
    voluntaryContextSwitches: 79,
    involuntaryContextSwitches: 1
  }