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Node.js v9.9.0 Documentation
Table of Contents
ECMAScript Modules#
Node.js contains support for ES Modules based upon the Node.js EP for ES Modules.
Not all features of the EP are complete and will be landing as both VM support and implementation is ready. Error messages are still being polished.
Enabling#
The --experimental-modules
flag can be used to enable features for loading
ESM modules.
Once this has been set, files ending with .mjs
will be able to be loaded
as ES Modules.
node --experimental-modules my-app.mjs
Features#
Supported#
Only the CLI argument for the main entry point to the program can be an entry point into an ESM graph. Dynamic import can also be used to create entry points into ESM graphs at runtime.
Unsupported#
Feature | Reason |
---|---|
require('./foo.mjs') |
ES Modules have differing resolution and timing, use language standard import() |
import() |
pending newer V8 release used in Node.js |
import.meta |
pending V8 implementation |
Notable differences between import
and require
#
No NODE_PATH#
NODE_PATH
is not part of resolving import
specifiers. Please use symlinks
if this behavior is desired.
No require.extensions
#
require.extensions
is not used by import
. The expectation is that loader
hooks can provide this workflow in the future.
No require.cache
#
require.cache
is not used by import
. It has a separate cache.
URL based paths#
ESM are resolved and cached based upon URL
semantics. This means that files containing special characters such as #
and
?
need to be escaped.
Modules will be loaded multiple times if the import
specifier used to resolve
them have a different query or fragment.
import './foo?query=1'; // loads ./foo with query of "?query=1"
import './foo?query=2'; // loads ./foo with query of "?query=2"
For now, only modules using the file:
protocol can be loaded.
Interop with existing modules#
All CommonJS, JSON, and C++ modules can be used with import
.
Modules loaded this way will only be loaded once, even if their query
or fragment string differs between import
statements.
When loaded via import
these modules will provide a single default
export
representing the value of module.exports
at the time they finished evaluating.
import fs from 'fs';
fs.readFile('./foo.txt', (err, body) => {
if (err) {
console.error(err);
} else {
console.log(body);
}
});
Loader hooks#
To customize the default module resolution, loader hooks can optionally be
provided via a --loader ./loader-name.mjs
argument to Node.
When hooks are used they only apply to ES module loading and not to any CommonJS modules loaded.
Resolve hook#
The resolve hook returns the resolved file URL and module format for a given module specifier and parent file URL:
const baseURL = new URL('file://');
baseURL.pathname = `${process.cwd()}/`;
export async function resolve(specifier,
parentModuleURL = baseURL,
defaultResolver) {
return {
url: new URL(specifier, parentModuleURL).href,
format: 'esm'
};
}
The parentURL is provided as undefined
when performing main Node.js load itself.
The default Node.js ES module resolution function is provided as a third argument to the resolver for easy compatibility workflows.
In addition to returning the resolved file URL value, the resolve hook also
returns a format
property specifying the module format of the resolved
module. This can be one of the following:
format |
Description |
---|---|
"esm" |
Load a standard JavaScript module |
"cjs" |
Load a node-style CommonJS module |
"builtin" |
Load a node builtin CommonJS module |
"json" |
Load a JSON file |
"addon" |
Load a C++ Addon |
"dynamic" |
Use a dynamic instantiate hook |
For example, a dummy loader to load JavaScript restricted to browser resolution rules with only JS file extension and Node builtin modules support could be written:
import url from 'url';
import path from 'path';
import process from 'process';
import Module from 'module';
const builtins = Module.builtinModules;
const JS_EXTENSIONS = new Set(['.js', '.mjs']);
const baseURL = new URL('file://');
baseURL.pathname = `${process.cwd()}/`;
export function resolve(specifier, parentModuleURL = baseURL, defaultResolve) {
if (builtins.includes(specifier)) {
return {
url: specifier,
format: 'builtin'
};
}
if (/^\.{0,2}[/]/.test(specifier) !== true && !specifier.startsWith('file:')) {
// For node_modules support:
// return defaultResolve(specifier, parentModuleURL);
throw new Error(
`imports must begin with '/', './', or '../'; '${specifier}' does not`);
}
const resolved = new url.URL(specifier, parentModuleURL);
const ext = path.extname(resolved.pathname);
if (!JS_EXTENSIONS.has(ext)) {
throw new Error(
`Cannot load file with non-JavaScript file extension ${ext}.`);
}
return {
url: resolved.href,
format: 'esm'
};
}
With this loader, running:
NODE_OPTIONS='--experimental-modules --loader ./custom-loader.mjs' node x.js
would load the module x.js
as an ES module with relative resolution support
(with node_modules
loading skipped in this example).
Dynamic instantiate hook#
To create a custom dynamic module that doesn't correspond to one of the
existing format
interpretations, the dynamicInstantiate
hook can be used.
This hook is called only for modules that return format: "dynamic"
from
the resolve
hook.
export async function dynamicInstantiate(url) {
return {
exports: ['customExportName'],
execute: (exports) => {
// get and set functions provided for pre-allocated export names
exports.customExportName.set('value');
}
};
}
With the list of module exports provided upfront, the execute
function will
then be called at the exact point of module evaluation order for that module
in the import tree.