Node by example

Node by example: 4. Basics

Published on April 21, 2010
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4. Basics

The complete source code can be downloaded here: http://github.com/Hendrik/node-by-example

Encodings:
Node.JS supports UTF-8 ("utf8"), ASCII ("ascii") and Binary ("binary").
ASCII and Binary are relatively fast, UTF-8 is slower and should be avoided when possible.

Globals: [1]
i) Arguments:
See 04_Basics/global.js:

var sys = require("sys"),
    some_argument = process.argv[2];

// argument example
if (!some_argument) {
  return sys.puts("Usage: node " + __filename.replace(__dirname + "/", "") + " some_argument");
}

// require example
sys.puts("Default require.paths: " + require.paths);
sys.puts("Adding current directory to require.paths");
require.paths.unshift(__dirname);
sys.puts("Modified require.paths: " + require.paths);


run it via

node global.js test_arg

The output will be something like:

Default require.paths: /root/.node_libraries
Adding current directory to require.paths
Modified require.paths: /usr/src/node-by-example/04_Basics,/root/.node_libraries

process.argv is an array containing the command line arguments.

some_argument = process.argv[2];

In this case "node" would be argv[0], "global.js" argv[1] and "test_arg" argv[2].

if (!some_argument) {
  return sys.puts("Usage: node " + __filename.replace(__dirname + "/", "") + " some_argument");
}

If a command line argument is not provided, the script will output the correct usage, where __filename is the global object for the name of the currently executed file and __dirname is the name of the directory of the currently executed code.

 

ii) require

require.paths

provides the search path for absolute path arguments to require()
You can add a directory to the search path by unshifting the new directory to require.paths:

require.paths.unshift(__dirname); // adds the current directory to the search directory

 

Process: [2]

The process Object provides information about the currently running process, such as its process ID, the platform it is running on, memory usage, ...

You can exit a script by providing an exit code, e.g.:

process.exit(0);

By default it exits using success code 0. See 04_Basics/process.js:

var sys = require("sys");

// display all command line arguments
sys.puts("Provided arguments:");
for (var key in process.argv) {
  sys.puts(key + ": " + process.argv[key]);
}

// process details (PID, platform, memory usage)
sys.puts("\nPID: " + process.pid);
sys.puts("Platform: " + process.platform);
sys.puts("Memory usage: " + process.memoryUsage().rss);

// display user environment
sys.puts("\nUser Environment:");
for (var key in process.env) {
  sys.puts(key + ": " + process.env[key]);
}

// process exit code - default: success code 0
process.exit(0);

 

System module: [3]

The system module provides various ways to send output to the console.

sys.puts()

outputs the string with a trailing newline.

 

sys.print()

outputs the string without any newline.

 

sys.debug("Some debug output")

outputs the string preceeded by "DEBUG: ", e.g.:

DEBUG: Some debug output

 

sys.log("Some log output")

outputs the string preceeded by the current date & time, e.g.:

20 Mar 23:17:15 - Some log output

 

sys.inspect(process.memoryUsage())

outputs a string representation of the provided object, e.g.:

{ rss: 5263360
, vsize: 41353216
, heapTotal: 2176512
, heapUsed: 963872
}

See 04_Basics/sys.js:

var sys = require("sys");

// sys output examples
sys.puts("Output with trailing newline");
sys.print("Output without ");
sys.print("new line");
sys.puts("\nAdd newline to begining and extra one at the end.\n");
sys.debug("Some debug output");
sys.log("Some log output");

// simple sys.inspect example
var process_memory = process.memoryUsage();
sys.puts("\nprocess.memoryUsage():");
sys.puts(sys.inspect(process_memory));

 

Timers: [4]

You can use the JavaScript timers, such as setTimeout(), clearTimeout(), setInterval(), clearInterval() in your node apps.

See 04_Basics/timers.js:

var sys = require("sys");

// simple timout example - waits for 2sec before continuing with the next step
var start_time = new Date();
sys.puts("Starting 2 second timer");
setTimeout(function() {
  var end_time = new Date();
  var difference = end_time.getTime() - start_time.getTime();
  sys.puts("Stopped timer after " + Math.round(difference/1000) + " seconds");
  cleartimeout_example();
}, 2000);

// clearTimeout example - timout set for 30secs, gets cancelled via clearTimeout right away, no output
function cleartimeout_example() {
  var start_time = new Date();
  sys.puts("\nStarting 30 second timer and stopping it immediately without triggering callback");
  var timeout = setTimeout(function() {
    var end_time = new Date();
    var difference = end_time.getTime() - start_time.getTime();
    sys.puts("Stopped timer after " + Math.round(difference/1000) + " seconds");
  }, 30000);
  clearTimeout(timeout);
  interval_example();
}

// interval example - 5x output every 2secs using setInterval
function interval_example() {
  var start_time = new Date();
  sys.puts("\nStarting 2 second interval, stopped after 5th tick");
  var count = 1;
  var interval = setInterval(function() {
    if (count == 5) clearInterval(this);
    var end_time = new Date();
    var difference = end_time.getTime() - start_time.getTime();
    sys.puts("Tick no. " + count + " after " + Math.round(difference/1000) + " seconds");
    count++;
  }, 2000);
}

 

[1] http://nodejs.org/api.html#global-objects-38
[2] http://nodejs.org/api.html#process-46
[3] http://nodejs.org/api.html#sys-68
[4] http://nodejs.org/api.html#timers-74