NODE(1)

NAME
node - server-side JavaScript runtime

SYNOPSIS
node [options] [v8 options] [<program-entry-point> | -e string | --] [arguments ...]
node inspect, [<program-entry-point> | -e string | <host>:<port>] ...
node [--v8-options]

DESCRIPTION
Node.js is a set of libraries for JavaScript which allows it to be used outside of the browser. It is primarily focused on creating simple, easy-to-build network clients and servers.

Execute node without arguments to start a REPL.

OPTIONS

-   Alias for stdin. Analogous to the use of - in other command-line utilities, meaning that the script is read from stdin, and the rest of the options are passed to that script.

--  Indicate the end of node options. Pass the rest of the arguments to the script. If no script filename or eval/print script is supplied prior to this, then the next argument is used as a script filename.

--abort-on-uncaught-exception
    Aborting instead of exiting causes a core file to be generated for post-mortem analysis using a debugger (such as lldb, gdb, and mdb). If this flag is passed, the behavior can still be set to not abort through process.setUncaughtExceptionCaptureCallback() (and through usage of the node:domain module that uses it).

--allow-addons
    When using the Permission Model, the process will not be able to use native addons by default. Attempts to do so will throw an ERR_DLOPEN_DISABLED unless the user explicitly passes the --allow-addons flag when starting Node.js. Example:

        // Attempt to require an native addon
        require('nodejs-addon-example');

        $ node --permission --allow-fs-read=* index.js
        node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1319
          return process.dlopen(module, path.toNamespacedPath(filename));
                         ^
        Error: Cannot load native addon because loading addons is disabled.
            at Module._extensions..node (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1319:18)
            at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1091:32)
            at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:938:12)
            at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1115:19)
            at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:130:18)
            at Object.<anonymous> (/home/index.js:1:15)
            at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1233:14)
            at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1287:10)
            at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1091:32)
            at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:938:12) {
          code: 'ERR_DLOPEN_DISABLED'
        }

--allow-child-process
    When using the Permission Model, the process will not be able to spawn any child process by default. Attempts to do so will throw an ERR_ACCESS_DENIED unless the user explicitly passes the --allow-child-process flag when starting Node.js. Example:

        const childProcess = require('node:child_process');
        // Attempt to bypass the permission
        childProcess.spawn('node', ['-e', 'require("fs").writeFileSync("/new-file", "example")']);

        $ node --permission --allow-fs-read=* index.js
        node:internal/child_process:388
          const err = this._handle.spawn(options);
                                   ^
        Error: Access to this API has been restricted
            at ChildProcess.spawn (node:internal/child_process:388:28)
            at node:internal/main/run_main_module:17:47 {
          code: 'ERR_ACCESS_DENIED',
          permission: 'ChildProcess'
        }

    The child_process.fork() API inherits the execution arguments from the parent process. This means that if Node.js is started with the Permission Model enabled and the --allow-child-process flag is set, any child process created using child_process.fork() will automatically receive all relevant Permission Model flags. This behavior also applies to child_process.spawn(), but in that case, the flags are propagated via the NODE_OPTIONS environment variable rather than directly through the process arguments.

--allow-ffi
    When using the Permission Model, the process will not be able to use FFI APIs by default. Attempts to use FFI APIs will throw an ERR_ACCESS_DENIED exception unless the user explicitly passes the --allow-ffi flag when starting Node.js. The node:ffi module also requires the --experimental-ffi flag and is only available in builds with FFI support. Example:

        const { DynamicLibrary, suffix } = require('node:ffi');
        const lib = new DynamicLibrary(`./mylib.${suffix}`);

        $ node --permission --experimental-ffi index.js
        Error: Access to this API has been restricted. Use --allow-ffi to manage permissions.
            at node:internal/main/run_main_module:17:47 {
          code: 'ERR_ACCESS_DENIED',
          permission: 'FFI'
        }

--allow-fs-read
    This flag configures file system read permissions using the Permission Model. The valid arguments for the --allow-fs-read flag are:

    •   * - To allow all FileSystemRead operations.

    •   Multiple paths can be allowed using multiple --allow-fs-read flags. Example --allow-fs-read=/folder1/ --allow-fs-read=/folder2/
    Examples can be found in the File System Permissions documentation. The initializer module and custom --require modules has a implicit read permission.

        $ node --permission -r custom-require.js -r custom-require-2.js index.js

    •   The custom-require.js, custom-require-2.js, and index.js will be by default in the allowed read list.

        process.permission.has('fs.read', 'index.js'); // true
        process.permission.has('fs.read', 'custom-require.js'); // true
        process.permission.has('fs.read', 'custom-require-2.js'); // true

--allow-fs-write
    This flag configures file system write permissions using the Permission Model. The valid arguments for the --allow-fs-write flag are:

    •   * - To allow all FileSystemWrite operations.

    •   Multiple paths can be allowed using multiple --allow-fs-write flags. Example --allow-fs-write=/folder1/ --allow-fs-write=/folder2/
    Paths delimited by comma (,) are no longer allowed. When passing a single flag with a comma a warning will be displayed. Examples can be found in the File System Permissions documentation.

--allow-inspector
    When using the Permission Model, the process will not be able to connect through inspector protocol. Attempts to do so will throw an ERR_ACCESS_DENIED unless the user explicitly passes the --allow-inspector flag when starting Node.js. Example:

        const { Session } = require('node:inspector/promises');
        const session = new Session();
        session.connect();

        $ node --permission index.js
        Error: connect ERR_ACCESS_DENIED Access to this API has been restricted. Use --allow-inspector to manage permissions.
          code: 'ERR_ACCESS_DENIED',
        }

--allow-net
    When using the Permission Model, the process will not be able to access network by default. Attempts to do so will throw an ERR_ACCESS_DENIED unless the user explicitly passes the --allow-net flag when starting Node.js. Example:

        const http = require('node:http');
        // Attempt to bypass the permission
        const req = http.get('http://example.com', () => {});
        req.on('error', (err) => {
          console.log('err', err);
        });

        $ node --permission index.js
        Error: connect ERR_ACCESS_DENIED Access to this API has been restricted. Use --allow-net to manage permissions.
          code: 'ERR_ACCESS_DENIED',
        }

--allow-openssl-store
    When using the Permission Model, the process will not be able to use OpenSSL STORE loaders by default, for example to load a private key from a <URL> passed to crypto.createPrivateKey(). Attempts to do so will throw an ERR_ACCESS_DENIED unless the user explicitly passes the --allow-openssl-store flag. This permission can be dropped at runtime via permission.drop(). This flag grants broad authority to configured OpenSSL STORE loaders. A loader may access files, devices, tokens, or the network. Access performed by a loader is not constrained by the fs.read, fs.write, or net permission scopes.

--allow-wasi
    When using the Permission Model, the process will not be capable of creating any WASI instances by default. For security reasons, the call will throw an ERR_ACCESS_DENIED unless the user explicitly passes the flag --allow-wasi in the main Node.js process. Example:

        const { WASI } = require('node:wasi');
        // Attempt to bypass the permission
        new WASI({
          version: 'preview1',
          // Attempt to mount the whole filesystem
          preopens: {
            '/': '/',
          },
        });

        $ node --permission --allow-fs-read=* index.js
        Error: Access to this API has been restricted
            at node:internal/main/run_main_module:30:49 {
          code: 'ERR_ACCESS_DENIED',
          permission: 'WASI',
        }

--allow-worker
    When using the Permission Model, the process will not be able to create any worker threads by default. For security reasons, the call will throw an ERR_ACCESS_DENIED unless the user explicitly pass the flag --allow-worker in the main Node.js process. Example:

        const { Worker } = require('node:worker_threads');
        // Attempt to bypass the permission
        new Worker(__filename);

        $ node --permission --allow-fs-read=* index.js
        Error: Access to this API has been restricted
            at node:internal/main/run_main_module:17:47 {
          code: 'ERR_ACCESS_DENIED',
          permission: 'WorkerThreads'
        }

--build-sea=config
    Generates a single executable application from a JSON configuration file. The argument must be a path to the configuration file. If the path is not absolute, it is resolved relative to the current working directory. For configuration fields, cross-platform notes, and asset APIs, see the single executable application documentation.

--build-snapshot
    Generates a snapshot blob when the process exits and writes it to disk, which can be loaded later with --snapshot-blob. When building the snapshot, if --snapshot-blob is not specified, the generated blob will be written, by default, to snapshot.blob in the current working directory. Otherwise it will be written to the path specified by --snapshot-blob.

        $ echo "globalThis.foo = 'I am from the snapshot'" > snapshot.js
        # Run snapshot.js to initialize the application and snapshot the
        # state of it into snapshot.blob.
        $ node --snapshot-blob snapshot.blob --build-snapshot snapshot.js
        $ echo "console.log(globalThis.foo)" > index.js
        # Load the generated snapshot and start the application from index.js.
        $ node --snapshot-blob snapshot.blob index.js
        I am from the snapshot

    The v8.startupSnapshot API can be used to specify an entry point at snapshot building time, thus avoiding the need of an additional entry script at deserialization time:

        $ echo "require('v8').startupSnapshot.setDeserializeMainFunction(() => console.log('I am from the snapshot'))" > snapshot.js
        $ node --snapshot-blob snapshot.blob --build-snapshot snapshot.js
        $ node --snapshot-blob snapshot.blob
        I am from the snapshot

    For more information, check out the v8.startupSnapshot API documentation. The snapshot currently only supports loading a single entrypoint during the snapshot building process, which can load built-in modules, but not additional user-land modules. Users can bundle their applications into a single script with their bundler of choice before building a snapshot. As it's complicated to ensure the serializablility of all built-in modules, which are also growing over time, only a subset of the built-in modules are well tested to be serializable during the snapshot building process. The Node.js core test suite checks that a few fairly complex applications can be snapshotted. The list of built-in modules being captured by the built-in snapshot of Node.js is considered supported. When the snapshot builder encounters a built-in module that cannot be serialized, it may crash the snapshot building process. In that case a typical workaround would be to delay loading that module until runtime, using either v8.startupSnapshot.setDeserializeMainFunction() or v8.startupSnapshot.addDeserializeCallback(). If serialization for an additional module during the snapshot building process is needed, please file a request in the Node.js issue tracker and link to it in the tracking issue for user-land snapshots.

--build-snapshot-config
    Specifies the path to a JSON configuration file which configures snapshot creation behavior. The following options are currently supported:

    •   builder <string> Required. Provides the name to the script that is executed before building the snapshot, as if --build-snapshot had been passed with builder as the main script name.

    •   withoutCodeCache <boolean> Optional. Including the code cache reduces the time spent on compiling functions included in the snapshot at the expense of a bigger snapshot size and potentially breaking portability of the snapshot.
    When using this flag, additional script files provided on the command line will not be executed and instead be interpreted as regular command line arguments.

-c, --check
    Syntax check the script without executing.

--completion-bash
    Print source-able bash completion script for Node.js.

        node --completion-bash > node_bash_completion
        source node_bash_completion

-C condition, --conditions=condition
    Provide custom conditional exports resolution conditions. Any number of custom string condition names are permitted. The default Node.js conditions of "node", "default", "import", and "require" will always apply as defined. For example, to run a module with "development" resolutions:

        node -C development app.js

--cpu-prof
    Starts the V8 CPU profiler on start up, and writes the CPU profile to disk before exit. If --cpu-prof-dir is not specified, the generated profile is placed in the current working directory. If --cpu-prof-name is not specified, the generated profile is named CPU.${yyyymmdd}.${hhmmss}.${pid}.${tid}.${seq}.cpuprofile.

        $ node --cpu-prof index.js
        $ ls *.cpuprofile
        CPU.20190409.202950.15293.0.0.cpuprofile

    If --cpu-prof-name is specified, the provided value is used as a template for the file name. The following placeholder is supported and will be substituted at runtime:

    •   ${pid} — the current process ID

        $ node --cpu-prof --cpu-prof-name 'CPU.${pid}.cpuprofile' index.js
        $ ls *.cpuprofile
        CPU.15293.cpuprofile

--cpu-prof-dir
    Specify the directory where the CPU profiles generated by --cpu-prof will be placed. The default value is controlled by the --diagnostic-dir command-line option.

--cpu-prof-interval
    Specify the sampling interval in microseconds for the CPU profiles generated by --cpu-prof. The default is 1000 microseconds.

--cpu-prof-name
    Specify the file name of the CPU profile generated by --cpu-prof.

--diagnostic-dir=directory
    Set the directory to which all diagnostic output files are written. Defaults to current working directory. Affects the default output directory of:

    •   --cpu-prof-dir

    •   --heap-prof-dir

    •   --redirect-warnings

--disable-proto=mode
    Disable the Object.prototype.__proto__ property. If mode is delete, the property is removed entirely. If mode is throw, accesses to the property throw an exception with the code ERR_PROTO_ACCESS.

--disable-sigusr1
    Disable the ability of starting a debugging session by sending a SIGUSR1 signal to the process.

--disable-warning=code-or-type
    Disable specific process warnings by code or type. Warnings emitted from process.emitWarning() may contain a code and a type. This option will not-emit warnings that have a matching code or type. List of deprecation warnings. The Node.js core warning types are: DeprecationWarning and ExperimentalWarning For example, the following script will not emit DEP0025 require('node:sys') when executed with node --disable-warning=DEP0025:

        import sys from 'node:sys';

        const sys = require('node:sys');

    For example, the following script will emit the DEP0025 require('node:sys'), but not any Experimental Warnings (such as ExperimentalWarning: vm.measureMemory is an experimental feature in <=v21) when executed with node --disable-warning=ExperimentalWarning:

        import sys from 'node:sys';
        import vm from 'node:vm';
        vm.measureMemory();

        const sys = require('node:sys');
        const vm = require('node:vm');
        vm.measureMemory();

--disable-wasm-trap-handler
    Node.js enables V8's trap-handler-based WebAssembly bound checks on 64-bit platforms, which significantly improves WebAssembly performance by eliminating the need for inline bound checks. This optimization requires allocating a large virtual memory cage per WebAssembly memory instance (currently typically 8GB for 32-bit WebAssembly memory, 16GB for 64-bit WebAssembly memory) to trap out-of-bound accesses. On most 64-bit platforms, the virtual memory address space is usually large enough (around 128TB) to accommodate typical WebAssembly usages, but if the machine has manual limits on virtual memory (e.g. through ulimit -v), WebAssembly memory allocation is more likely to fail with WebAssembly.Memory(): could not allocate memory. At startup, Node.js automatically checks whether there is enough virtual memory available to allocate at least one cage, and if not, the trap-handler optimization is automatically disabled so that WebAssembly can still run using inline bound checks (with less optimal performance). But if the application needs to create many WebAssembly memory instances and the machine still configures a relatively high limit on virtual memory, allocation of WebAssembly memory instances may still fail more quickly than expected due to the raised virtual memory usage. --disable-wasm-trap-handler fully disables this optimization so that WebAssembly memory instances always use inline bound checks instead of reserving large virtual memory cages. This allows more instances to be created when the virtual memory address space available to the Node.js process is limited.

--disallow-code-generation-from-strings
    Make built-in language features like eval and new Function that generate code from strings throw an exception instead. This does not affect the Node.js node:vm module.

--dns-result-order=order
    Set the default value of order in dns.lookup() and dnsPromises.lookup(). The value could be:

    •   ipv4first: sets default order to ipv4first.

    •   ipv6first: sets default order to ipv6first.

    •   verbatim: sets default order to verbatim.
    The default is verbatim and dns.setDefaultResultOrder() have higher priority than --dns-result-order.

--enable-fips
    Enable FIPS mode at startup. With OpenSSL 3, a configured provider named fips must be available and initialize successfully. With OpenSSL 1.1.1, Node.js must be built against a FIPS-capable OpenSSL.

--enable-source-maps
    Enable Source Map support for stack traces. When using a transpiler, such as TypeScript, stack traces thrown by an application reference the transpiled code, not the original source position. --enable-source-maps enables caching of Source Maps and makes a best effort to report stack traces relative to the original source file. Overriding Error.prepareStackTrace may prevent --enable-source-maps from modifying the stack trace. Call and return the results of the original Error.prepareStackTrace in the overriding function to modify the stack trace with source maps.

        const originalPrepareStackTrace = Error.prepareStackTrace;
        Error.prepareStackTrace = (error, trace) => {
          // Modify error and trace and format stack trace with
          // original Error.prepareStackTrace.
          return originalPrepareStackTrace(error, trace);
        };

    Note, enabling source maps can introduce latency to your application when Error.stack is accessed. If you access Error.stack frequently in your application, take into account the performance implications of --enable-source-maps.

--entry-url
    When present, Node.js will interpret the entry point as a URL, rather than a path. Follows ECMAScript module resolution rules. Any query parameter or hash in the URL will be accessible via import.meta.url.

        node --entry-url 'file:///path/to/file.js?queryparams=work#and-hashes-too'
        node --entry-url 'file.ts?query#hash'
        node --entry-url 'data:text/javascript,console.log("Hello")'

--env-file-if-exists=file
    Behavior is the same as --env-file, but an error is not thrown if the file does not exist.

--env-file=file
    Loads environment variables from a file relative to the current directory, making them available to applications on process.env. The environment variables which configure Node.js, such as NODE_OPTIONS, are parsed and applied. If the same variable is defined in the environment and in the file, the value from the environment takes precedence. You can pass multiple --env-file arguments. Subsequent files override pre-existing variables defined in previous files. An error is thrown if the file does not exist.

        node --env-file=.env --env-file=.development.env index.js

    The format of the file should be one line per key-value pair of environment variable name and value separated by =:

        PORT=3000

    Any text after a # is treated as a comment:

        # This is a comment
        PORT=3000 # This is also a comment

    Values can start and end with the following quotes: `, " or '. They are omitted from the values.

        USERNAME="nodejs" # will result in `nodejs` as the value.

    Multi-line values are supported:

        MULTI_LINE="THIS IS
        A MULTILINE"
        # will result in `THIS IS\nA MULTILINE` as the value.

    Export keyword before a key is ignored:

        export USERNAME="nodejs" # will result in `nodejs` as the value.

    If you want to load environment variables from a file that may not exist, you can use the --env-file-if-exists flag instead.

-e, --eval script
    Evaluate the following argument as JavaScript. The modules which are predefined in the REPL can also be used in script. If script starts with -, pass it using = (for example, node --print --eval=-42) so it is parsed as the value of --eval. On Windows, using cmd.exe a single quote will not work correctly because it only recognizes double " for quoting. In Powershell or Git bash, both ' and " are usable. It is possible to run code containing inline types unless the --no-strip-types flag is provided.

--experimental-addon-modules
    Enable experimental import support for .node addons.

--experimental-config-file=path, --experimental-config-file
    If present, Node.js will look for a configuration file at the specified path. If the path is not specified, Node.js will look for a node.config.json file in the current working directory. To specify a custom path, use the --experimental-config-file=path form. The space-separated --experimental-config-file path form is not supported. The alias --experimental-default-config-file is equivalent to --experimental-config-file without an argument. Node.js will read the configuration file and apply the settings. The configuration file should be a JSON file with the following structure. vX.Y.Z in the $schema must be replaced with the version of Node.js you are using or latest-vX.x for the latest version of that major release line.

        {
          "$schema": "https://nodejs.org/dist/vX.Y.Z/docs/node-config-schema.json",
          "nodeOptions": {
            "import": [
              "amaro/strip"
            ],
            "watch-path": "src",
            "watch-preserve-output": true
          },
          "test": {
            "test-isolation": "process"
          },
          "watch": {
            "watch-preserve-output": true
          }
        }

    The configuration file supports namespace-specific options:

    •   The nodeOptions field contains CLI flags that are allowed in NODE_OPTIONS.

    •   Namespace fields like test, watch, and permission contain configuration specific to that subsystem.
    The configuration file can target a specific Node.js major version with nodeVersion:

        {
          "nodeVersion": 25,
          "nodeOptions": {
            "watch-path": "src"
          }
        }

    To keep multiple version-specific configurations in the same file, use the configs array. Node.js will use the first entry whose nodeVersion matches the current Node.js major version:

        {
          "$schema": "https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v26.x/docs/node-config-schema.json",
          "configs": [
            {
              "nodeVersion": 25,
              "config": {
                "$schema": "https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v25.x/docs/node-config-schema.json",
                "nodeOptions": {
                  "watch-path": "src"
                }
              }
            }
          ]
        }

    When configs is used, the top level may only contain $schema and configs. Each configs item must define an integer nodeVersion and an object config. A single top-level config does not require nodeVersion, but if present it must match the current Node.js major version. When a namespace is present in the configuration file, Node.js automatically enables the corresponding flag (e.g., --test, --watch, --permission). This allows you to configure subsystem-specific options without explicitly passing the flag on the command line. For example:

        {
          "test": {
            "test-isolation": "process"
          }
        }

    is equivalent to:

        node --test --test-isolation=process

    To disable the automatic flag while still using namespace options, you can explicitly set the flag to false within the namespace:

        {
          "test": {
            "test": false,
            "test-isolation": "process"
          }
        }

    No-op flags are not supported. Not all V8 flags are currently supported. It is possible to use the official JSON schema to validate the configuration file, which may vary depending on the Node.js version. Each key in the configuration file corresponds to a flag that can be passed as a command-line argument. The value of the key is the value that would be passed to the flag. For example, the configuration file above is equivalent to the following command-line arguments:

        node --import amaro/strip --watch-path=src --watch-preserve-output --test-isolation=process

    The priority in configuration is as follows:

    •   NODE_OPTIONS and command-line options

    •   Dotenv NODE_OPTIONS

    •   Configuration file
    Values in the configuration file will not override the values in the environment variables, command-line options, or the NODE_OPTIONS env file parsed by the --env-file flag. Keys cannot be duplicated within the same or different namespaces. The configuration parser will throw an error if the configuration file contains unknown keys or keys that cannot be used in a namespace. Node.js will not sanitize or perform validation on the user-provided configuration, so NEVER use untrusted configuration files.

--experimental-default-config-file
    This flag is an alias for --experimental-config-file without an argument. If present, Node.js will look for a node.config.json file in the current working directory and load it as a configuration file.

--experimental-eventsource
    Enable exposition of EventSource Web API on the global scope.

--experimental-ffi
    Enable the experimental node:ffi module. This flag is only available in builds with FFI support.

--experimental-import-meta-resolve
    Enable experimental import.meta.resolve() parent URL support, which allows passing a second parentURL argument for contextual resolution. Previously gated the entire import.meta.resolve feature.

--experimental-import-text
    Enable experimental support for importing modules with with { type: 'text' }.

--experimental-inspector-network-resource
    Enable experimental support for inspector network resources.

--experimental-loader=module
    Specify the module containing exported asynchronous module customization hooks. module may be any string accepted as an import specifier. This feature requires --allow-worker if used with the Permission Model.

--experimental-network-inspection
    Enable experimental support for the network inspection with Chrome DevTools.

--experimental-package-map=<path>
    Enable experimental package map resolution. The path argument specifies the location of a JSON configuration file that defines package resolution mappings.

        node --experimental-package-map=./package-map.json app.js

    When enabled, bare specifier resolution consults the package map for resolution. This allows explicit control over which packages can import which dependencies. See Package maps for details on the configuration file format and resolution algorithm.

--experimental-print-required-tla
    If the ES module graph cannot be require()'d because it contains any top-level await, this flag allows Node.js to locate and print their locations.

--experimental-quic
    Enable experimental support for the QUIC protocol.

--experimental-sea-config
    Use this flag to generate a blob that can be injected into the Node.js binary to produce a single executable application. See the documentation about this configuration for details.

--experimental-shadow-realm
    Use this flag to enable ShadowRealm support.

--experimental-storage-inspection
    Enable experimental support for storage inspection

--experimental-stream-iter
    Enable the experimental node:stream/iter module.

--experimental-test-coverage
    When used in conjunction with the node:test module, a code coverage report is generated as part of the test runner output. If no tests are run, a coverage report is not generated. See the documentation on collecting code coverage from tests for more details.

--experimental-test-module-mocks
    Enable module mocking in the test runner. This feature requires --allow-worker if used with the Permission Model.

--experimental-test-tag-filter='<expr>'
    Run only tests that match the provided boolean tag-filter expression. Tests declare tags via the tags option on test(), it(), suite(), or describe(). Tags inherit from suites to nested tests by union. The expression supports boolean operators (and/&&, or/||, not/!), parentheses for grouping, and * wildcards inside identifiers. Standard precedence applies: not binds tighter than and, which binds tighter than or. See Test tags for the full grammar and behavior. The flag may be specified more than once; multiple expressions are combined with AND, so a test must satisfy every expression to run. A malformed expression causes the test runner to exit with a non-zero status before running any tests.

--experimental-vfs
    Enable the experimental node:vfs module.

--experimental-vm-modules
    Enable experimental ES Module support in the node:vm module.

--experimental-wasi-unstable-preview1
    Enable experimental WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) support.

--experimental-worker-inspection
    Enable experimental support for the worker inspection with Chrome DevTools.

--force-context-aware
    Disable loading native addons that are not context-aware.

--force-fips
    Enable FIPS mode at startup and prevent it from being disabled from script code. The same OpenSSL requirements as --enable-fips apply.

--force-node-api-uncaught-exceptions-policy
    Enforces uncaughtException event on Node-API asynchronous callbacks. To prevent from an existing add-on from crashing the process, this flag is not enabled by default. In the future, this flag will be enabled by default to enforce the correct behavior.

--frozen-intrinsics
    Enable experimental frozen intrinsics like Array and Object. Only the root context is supported. There is no guarantee that globalThis.Array is indeed the default intrinsic reference. Code may break under this flag. To allow polyfills to be added, --require and --import both run before freezing intrinsics.

--heap-prof
    Starts the V8 heap profiler on start up, and writes the heap profile to disk before exit. If --heap-prof-dir is not specified, the generated profile is placed in the current working directory. If --heap-prof-name is not specified, the generated profile is named Heap.${yyyymmdd}.${hhmmss}.${pid}.${tid}.${seq}.heapprofile.

        $ node --heap-prof index.js
        $ ls *.heapprofile
        Heap.20190409.202950.15293.0.001.heapprofile

--heap-prof-dir
    Specify the directory where the heap profiles generated by --heap-prof will be placed. The default value is controlled by the --diagnostic-dir command-line option.

--heap-prof-interval
    Specify the average sampling interval in bytes for the heap profiles generated by --heap-prof. The default is 512 * 1024 bytes.

--heap-prof-name
    Specify the file name of the heap profile generated by --heap-prof.

--heapsnapshot-near-heap-limit=max_count
    Writes a V8 heap snapshot to disk when the V8 heap usage is approaching the heap limit. count should be a non-negative integer (in which case Node.js will write no more than max_count snapshots to disk). When generating snapshots, garbage collection may be triggered and bring the heap usage down. Therefore multiple snapshots may be written to disk before the Node.js instance finally runs out of memory. These heap snapshots can be compared to determine what objects are being allocated during the time consecutive snapshots are taken. It's not guaranteed that Node.js will write exactly max_count snapshots to disk, but it will try its best to generate at least one and up to max_count snapshots before the Node.js instance runs out of memory when max_count is greater than 0. Generating V8 snapshots takes time and memory (both memory managed by the V8 heap and native memory outside the V8 heap). The bigger the heap is, the more resources it needs. Node.js will adjust the V8 heap to accommodate the additional V8 heap memory overhead, and try its best to avoid using up all the memory available to the process. When the process uses more memory than the system deems appropriate, the process may be terminated abruptly by the system, depending on the system configuration.

        $ node --max-old-space-size=100 --heapsnapshot-near-heap-limit=3 index.js
        Wrote snapshot to Heap.20200430.100036.49580.0.001.heapsnapshot
        Wrote snapshot to Heap.20200430.100037.49580.0.002.heapsnapshot
        Wrote snapshot to Heap.20200430.100038.49580.0.003.heapsnapshot
        <--- Last few GCs --->
        [49580:0x110000000]     4826 ms: Mark-sweep 130.6 (147.8) -> 130.5 (147.8) MB, 27.4 / 0.0 ms  (average mu = 0.126, current mu = 0.034) allocation failure scavenge might not succeed
        [49580:0x110000000]     4845 ms: Mark-sweep 130.6 (147.8) -> 130.6 (147.8) MB, 18.8 / 0.0 ms  (average mu = 0.088, current mu = 0.031) allocation failure scavenge might not succeed
        <--- JS stacktrace --->
        FATAL ERROR: Ineffective mark-compacts near heap limit Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory

--heapsnapshot-signal=signal
    Enables a signal handler that causes the Node.js process to write a heap dump when the specified signal is received. signal must be a valid signal name. Disabled by default.

        $ node --heapsnapshot-signal=SIGUSR2 index.js &
        $ ps aux
        USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
        node         1  5.5  6.1 787252 247004 ?       Ssl  16:43   0:02 node --heapsnapshot-signal=SIGUSR2 index.js
        $ kill -USR2 1
        $ ls
        Heap.20190718.133405.15554.0.001.heapsnapshot

-h, --help
    Print node command-line options. The output of this option is less detailed than this document.

--icu-data-dir=file
    Specify ICU data load path. (Overrides NODE_ICU_DATA.)

--import=module
    Preload the specified module at startup. If the flag is provided several times, each module will be executed sequentially in the order they appear, starting with the ones provided in NODE_OPTIONS. Follows ECMAScript module resolution rules. Use --require to load a CommonJS module. Modules preloaded with --require will run before modules preloaded with --import. Modules are preloaded into the main thread as well as any worker threads, forked processes, or clustered processes.

--input-type=type
    This configures Node.js to interpret --eval or STDIN input as CommonJS or as an ES module. Valid values are "commonjs", "module", "module-typescript" and "commonjs-typescript". The "-typescript" values are not available with the flag --no-strip-types. The default is no value, or "commonjs" if --no-experimental-detect-module is passed. If --input-type is not provided, Node.js will try to detect the syntax with the following steps:

    •   Run the input as CommonJS.

    •   If step 1 fails, run the input as an ES module.

    •   If step 2 fails with a SyntaxError, strip the types.

    •   If step 3 fails with an error code ERR_UNSUPPORTED_TYPESCRIPT_SYNTAX or ERR_INVALID_TYPESCRIPT_SYNTAX, throw the error from step 2, including the TypeScript error in the message, else run as CommonJS.

    •   If step 4 fails, run the input as an ES module.
    To avoid the delay of multiple syntax detection passes, the --input-type=type flag can be used to specify how the --eval input should be interpreted. The REPL does not support this option. Usage of --input-type=module with --print will throw an error, as --print does not support ES module syntax.

--insecure-http-parser
    Enable leniency flags on the HTTP parser. This may allow interoperability with non-conformant HTTP implementations. When enabled, the parser will accept the following:

    •   Invalid HTTP headers values.

    •   Invalid HTTP versions.

    •   Allow message containing both Transfer-Encoding and Content-Length headers.

    •   Allow extra data after message when Connection: close is present.

    •   Allow extra transfer encodings after chunked has been provided.

    •   Allow \n to be used as token separator instead of \r\n.

    •   Allow \r\n not to be provided after a chunk.

    •   Allow spaces to be present after a chunk size and before \r\n.
    All the above will expose your application to request smuggling or poisoning attack. Avoid using this option.

--inspect-brk=[[host:]port]
    Activate inspector on host:port and break at start of user script. Default host:port is 127.0.0.1:9229. If port 0 is specified, a random available port will be used. See V8 Inspector integration for Node.js for further explanation on Node.js debugger. See the security warning below regarding the host parameter usage.

--inspect-port=[host:]port
    Set the host:port to be used when the inspector is activated. Useful when activating the inspector by sending the SIGUSR1 signal. Except when --disable-sigusr1 is passed. Default host is 127.0.0.1. If port 0 is specified, a random available port will be used. See the security warning below regarding the host parameter usage.

--inspect-publish-uid=stderr,http
    Specify ways of the inspector web socket url exposure. By default inspector websocket url is available in stderr and under /json/list endpoint on http://host:port/json/list.

--inspect-wait=[[host:]port]
    Activate inspector on host:port and wait for debugger to be attached. Default host:port is 127.0.0.1:9229. If port 0 is specified, a random available port will be used. See V8 Inspector integration for Node.js for further explanation on Node.js debugger. See the security warning below regarding the host parameter usage.

--inspect=[[host:]port]
    Activate inspector on host:port. Default is 127.0.0.1:9229. If port 0 is specified, a random available port will be used. V8 inspector integration allows tools such as Chrome DevTools and IDEs to debug and profile Node.js instances. The tools attach to Node.js instances via a tcp port and communicate using the Chrome DevTools Protocol. See V8 Inspector integration for Node.js for further explanation on Node.js debugger.

-i, --interactive
    Opens the REPL even if stdin does not appear to be a terminal.

--jitless
    Disable runtime allocation of executable memory. This may be required on some platforms for security reasons. It can also reduce attack surface on other platforms, but the performance impact may be severe.

--localstorage-file=file
    The file used to store localStorage data. If the file does not exist, it is created the first time localStorage is accessed. The same file may be shared between multiple Node.js processes concurrently.

--max-http-header-size=size
    Specify the maximum size, in bytes, of HTTP headers. Defaults to 16 KiB.

--max-old-space-size-percentage=percentage
    Sets the maximum memory size of V8's old memory section as a percentage of available system memory. This flag takes precedence over --max-old-space-size when both are specified. The percentage parameter must be a number greater than 0 and up to 100, representing the percentage of available system memory to allocate to the V8 heap. Note: This flag utilizes --max-old-space-size, which may be unreliable on 32-bit platforms due to integer overflow issues.

        # Using 50% of available system memory
        node --max-old-space-size-percentage=50 index.js
        # Using 75% of available system memory
        node --max-old-space-size-percentage=75 index.js

--network-family-autoselection-attempt-timeout
    Sets the default value for the network family autoselection attempt timeout. For more information, see net.getDefaultAutoSelectFamilyAttemptTimeout().

--no-addons
    Disable the node-addons exports condition as well as disable loading native addons. When --no-addons is specified, calling process.dlopen or requiring a native C++ addon will fail and throw an exception.

--no-async-context-frame
    Disables the use of AsyncLocalStorage backed by AsyncContextFrame and uses the prior implementation which relied on async_hooks. The previous model is retained for compatibility with Electron and for cases where the context flow may differ. However, if a difference in flow is found please report it.

--no-deprecation
    Silence deprecation warnings.

--no-experimental-detect-module
    Disable using syntax detection to determine module type.

--no-experimental-global-navigator
    Disable exposition of Navigator API on the global scope.

--no-experimental-repl-await
    Use this flag to disable top-level await in REPL.

--no-experimental-require-module
    Legacy alias for --no-require-module.

--no-experimental-sqlite
    Disable the experimental node:sqlite module.

--no-experimental-websocket
    Disable exposition of <WebSocket> on the global scope.

--no-experimental-webstorage
    Disable Web Storage support.

--no-extra-info-on-fatal-exception
    Hide extra information on fatal exception that causes exit.

--no-force-async-hooks-checks
    Disables runtime checks for async_hooks. These will still be enabled dynamically when async_hooks is enabled.

--no-global-search-paths
    Do not search modules from global paths like $HOME/.node_modules and $NODE_PATH.

--no-network-family-autoselection
    Disables the family autoselection algorithm unless connection options explicitly enables it.

--no-require-module
    Disable support for loading a synchronous ES module graph in require(). See Loading ECMAScript modules using require().

--no-strip-types
    Disable type-stripping for TypeScript files. For more information, see the TypeScript type-stripping documentation.

--no-warnings
    Silence all process warnings (including deprecations).

--node-memory-debug
    Enable extra debug checks for memory leaks in Node.js internals. This is usually only useful for developers debugging Node.js itself.

--openssl-config=file
    Load an OpenSSL configuration file on startup. The file can activate an OpenSSL 3 FIPS provider or configure a FIPS-capable OpenSSL 1.1.1 build. See FIPS mode. This option takes precedence over the OPENSSL_CONF environment variable.

--openssl-legacy-provider
    Enable OpenSSL 3.0 legacy provider. For more information please see OSSL_PROVIDER-legacy.

--openssl-shared-config
    Enable OpenSSL default configuration section, openssl_conf to be read from the OpenSSL configuration file. The default configuration file is named openssl.cnf but this can be changed using the environment variable OPENSSL_CONF, or by using the command line option --openssl-config. The location of the default OpenSSL configuration file depends on how OpenSSL is being linked to Node.js. Sharing the OpenSSL configuration may have unwanted implications and it is recommended to use a configuration section specific to Node.js which is nodejs_conf and is default when this option is not used.

--pending-deprecation
    Emit pending deprecation warnings. Pending deprecations are generally identical to a runtime deprecation with the notable exception that they are turned off by default and will not be emitted unless either the --pending-deprecation command-line flag, or the NODE_PENDING_DEPRECATION=1 environment variable, is set. Pending deprecations are used to provide a kind of selective "early warning" mechanism that developers may leverage to detect deprecated API usage.

--permission
    Enable the Permission Model for current process. When enabled, the following permissions are restricted:

    •   File System - manageable through --allow-fs-read, --allow-fs-write flags

    •   Network - manageable through --allow-net flag

    •   Child Process - manageable through --allow-child-process flag

    •   Worker Threads - manageable through --allow-worker flag

    •   WASI - manageable through --allow-wasi flag

    •   Addons - manageable through --allow-addons flag

    •   FFI - manageable through --allow-ffi flag

    •   OpenSSL STORE loaders - manageable through --allow-openssl-store flag

--permission-audit
    Enable audit mode for the permission model. When enabled, permission checks are performed but access is not denied — no ERR_ACCESS_DENIED error is thrown. Instead, each permission violation is published through the node:diagnostics_channel module, and execution continues normally. This flag does not require --permission to be specified. The --allow-* flags are not needed in audit mode, since no access is denied. Audit mode is useful for discovering what permissions your application requires before deploying with --permission. See the Permission Model documentation for the list of diagnostics channel names and the message format. If both --permission and --permission-audit are specified, --permission takes precedence and the Permission Model runs in enforce mode.

--preserve-symlinks
    Instructs the module loader to preserve symbolic links when resolving and caching modules. By default, when Node.js loads a module from a path that is symbolically linked to a different on-disk location, Node.js will dereference the link and use the actual on-disk "real path" of the module as both an identifier and as a root path to locate other dependency modules. In most cases, this default behavior is acceptable. However, when using symbolically linked peer dependencies, as illustrated in the example below, the default behavior causes an exception to be thrown if moduleA attempts to require moduleB as a peer dependency:

        {appDir}
         ├── app
         │   ├── index.js
         │   └── node_modules
         │       ├── moduleA -> {appDir}/moduleA
         │       └── moduleB
         │           ├── index.js
         │           └── package.json
         └── moduleA
             ├── index.js
             └── package.json

    The --preserve-symlinks command-line flag instructs Node.js to use the symlink path for modules as opposed to the real path, allowing symbolically linked peer dependencies to be found. Note, however, that using --preserve-symlinks can have other side effects. Specifically, symbolically linked native modules can fail to load if those are linked from more than one location in the dependency tree (Node.js would see those as two separate modules and would attempt to load the module multiple times, causing an exception to be thrown). The --preserve-symlinks flag does not apply to the main module, which allows node --preserve-symlinks node_module/.bin/<foo> to work. To apply the same behavior for the main module, also use --preserve-symlinks-main.

--preserve-symlinks-main
    Instructs the module loader to preserve symbolic links when resolving and caching the main module (require.main). This flag exists so that the main module can be opted-in to the same behavior that --preserve-symlinks gives to all other imports; they are separate flags, however, for backward compatibility with older Node.js versions. --preserve-symlinks-main does not imply --preserve-symlinks; use --preserve-symlinks-main in addition to --preserve-symlinks when it is not desirable to follow symlinks before resolving relative paths. See --preserve-symlinks for more information.

-p, --print script
    Identical to -e but prints the result.

--prof
    Generate V8 profiler output.

--prof-process
    Process V8 profiler output generated using the V8 option --prof.

--redirect-warnings=file
    Write process warnings to the given file instead of printing to stderr. The file will be created if it does not exist, and will be appended to if it does. If an error occurs while attempting to write the warning to the file, the warning will be written to stderr instead. The file name may be an absolute path. If it is not, the default directory it will be written to is controlled by the --diagnostic-dir command-line option.

--report-compact
    Write reports in a compact format, single-line JSON, more easily consumable by log processing systems than the default multi-line format designed for human consumption.

--report-dir=directory, --report-directory=directory
    Location at which the report will be generated.

--report-exclude-env
    When --report-exclude-env is passed the diagnostic report generated will not contain the environmentVariables data.

--report-exclude-network
    Exclude header.networkInterfaces from the diagnostic report. By default this is not set and the network interfaces are included.

--report-filename=filename
    Name of the file to which the report will be written. If the filename is set to 'stdout' or 'stderr', the report is written to the stdout or stderr of the process respectively.

--report-on-fatalerror
    Enables the report to be triggered on fatal errors (internal errors within the Node.js runtime such as out of memory) that lead to termination of the application. Useful to inspect various diagnostic data elements such as heap, stack, event loop state, resource consumption etc. to reason about the fatal error.

--report-on-signal
    Enables report to be generated upon receiving the specified (or predefined) signal to the running Node.js process. The signal to trigger the report is specified through --report-signal.

--report-signal=signal
    Sets or resets the signal for report generation (not supported on Windows). Default signal is SIGUSR2.

--report-uncaught-exception
    Enables report to be generated when the process exits due to an uncaught exception. Useful when inspecting the JavaScript stack in conjunction with native stack and other runtime environment data.

-r, --require module
    Preload the specified module at startup. Follows require()'s module resolution rules. module may be either a path to a file, or a node module name. Modules preloaded with --require will run before modules preloaded with --import. Modules are preloaded into the main thread as well as any worker threads, forked processes, or clustered processes.

--run
    This runs a specified command from a package.json's "scripts" object. If a missing "command" is provided, it will list the available scripts. --run will traverse up to the root directory and finds a package.json file to run the command from. --run prepends ./node_modules/.bin for each ancestor of the current directory, to the PATH in order to execute the binaries from different folders where multiple node_modules directories are present, if ancestor-folder/node_modules/.bin is a directory. --run executes the command in the directory containing the related package.json. For example, the following command will run the test script of the package.json in the current folder:

        $ node --run test

    You can also pass arguments to the command. Any argument after -- will be appended to the script:

        $ node --run test -- --verbose

--secure-heap-min=n
    When using --secure-heap, the --secure-heap-min flag specifies the minimum allocation from the secure heap. The minimum value is 2. The maximum value is the lesser of --secure-heap or 2147483647. The value given must be a power of two.

--secure-heap=n
    Initializes an OpenSSL secure heap of n bytes. When initialized, the secure heap is used for selected types of allocations within OpenSSL during key generation and other operations. This is useful, for instance, to prevent sensitive information from leaking due to pointer overruns or underruns. The secure heap is a fixed size and cannot be resized at runtime so, if used, it is important to select a large enough heap to cover all application uses. The heap size given must be a power of two. Any value less than 2 will disable the secure heap. The secure heap is disabled by default. The secure heap is not available on Windows. See CRYPTO_secure_malloc_init for more details.

--snapshot-blob=path
    When used with --build-snapshot, --snapshot-blob specifies the path where the generated snapshot blob is written to. If not specified, the generated blob is written to snapshot.blob in the current working directory. When used without --build-snapshot, --snapshot-blob specifies the path to the blob that is used to restore the application state. When loading a snapshot, Node.js checks that:

    •   The version, architecture, and platform of the running Node.js binary are exactly the same as that of the binary that generates the snapshot.

    •   The V8 flags and CPU features are compatible with that of the binary that generates the snapshot.
    If they don't match, Node.js refuses to load the snapshot and exits with status code 1.

--test
    Starts the Node.js command line test runner. This flag cannot be combined with --watch-path, --check, --eval, --interactive, or the inspector. See the documentation on running tests from the command line for more details.

--test-concurrency
    The maximum number of test files that the test runner CLI will execute concurrently. If --test-isolation is set to 'none', this flag is ignored and concurrency is one. Otherwise, concurrency defaults to os.availableParallelism() - 1.

--test-coverage-branches=threshold
    Require a minimum percent of covered branches. If code coverage does not reach the threshold specified, the process will exit with code 1.

--test-coverage-exclude
    Excludes specific files from code coverage using a glob pattern, which can match both absolute and relative file paths. This option may be specified multiple times to exclude multiple glob patterns. If both --test-coverage-exclude and --test-coverage-include are provided, files must meet both criteria to be included in the coverage report. By default all the matching test files are excluded from the coverage report. Specifying this option will override the default behavior.

--test-coverage-functions=threshold
    Require a minimum percent of covered functions. If code coverage does not reach the threshold specified, the process will exit with code 1.

--test-coverage-include
    Includes specific files in code coverage using a glob pattern, which can match both absolute and relative file paths. This option may be specified multiple times to include multiple glob patterns. If both --test-coverage-exclude and --test-coverage-include are provided, files must meet both criteria to be included in the coverage report.

--test-coverage-include-all
    Includes source files that were never loaded by the test run in the coverage report, where they are reported as having zero coverage. Candidate files are searched for in the current working directory, and are subject to the same --test-coverage-include and --test-coverage-exclude filtering as the rest of the report.

--test-coverage-lines=threshold
    Require a minimum percent of covered lines. If code coverage does not reach the threshold specified, the process will exit with code 1.

--test-force-exit
    Configures the test runner to exit the process once all known tests have finished executing even if the event loop would otherwise remain active.

--test-global-setup=module
    Specify a module that will be evaluated before all tests are executed and can be used to setup global state or fixtures for tests. See the documentation on global setup and teardown for more details.

--test-isolation=mode
    Configures the type of test isolation used in the test runner. When mode is 'process', each test file is run in a separate child process. When mode is 'none', all test files run in the same process as the test runner. The default isolation mode is 'process'. This flag is ignored if the --test flag is not present. See the test runner execution model section for more information.

--test-name-pattern
    A regular expression that configures the test runner to only execute tests whose name matches the provided pattern. See the documentation on filtering tests by name for more details. If both --test-name-pattern and --test-skip-pattern are supplied, tests must satisfy both requirements in order to be executed.

--test-only
    Configures the test runner to only execute top level tests that have the only option set. This flag is not necessary when test isolation is disabled.

--test-random-seed
    Set the seed used to randomize test execution order. This applies to both test file execution order and queued tests within each file. Providing this flag enables randomization implicitly, even without --test-randomize. The value must be an integer between 0 and 4294967295. This flag cannot be used with --watch or --test-rerun-failures.

--test-randomize
    Randomize test execution order. This applies to both test file execution order and queued tests within each file. This can help detect tests that rely on shared state or execution order. The seed used for randomization is printed in the test summary and can be reused with --test-random-seed. For detailed behavior and examples, see randomizing tests execution order. This flag cannot be used with --watch or --test-rerun-failures.

--test-reporter
    A test reporter to use when running tests. See the documentation on test reporters for more details.

--test-reporter-destination
    The destination for the corresponding test reporter. See the documentation on test reporters for more details.

--test-rerun-failures
    A path to a file allowing the test runner to persist the state of the test suite between runs. The test runner will use this file to determine which tests have already succeeded or failed, allowing for re-running of failed tests without having to re-run the entire test suite. The test runner will create this file if it does not exist. See the documentation on test reruns for more details.

--test-shard
    Test suite shard to execute in a format of <index>/<total>, where

    •   index is a positive integer, index of divided parts.

    •   total is a positive integer, total of divided part.
    This command will divide all tests files into total equal parts, and will run only those that happen to be in an index part. For example, to split your tests suite into three parts, use this:

        node --test --test-shard=1/3
        node --test --test-shard=2/3
        node --test --test-shard=3/3

--test-skip-pattern
    A regular expression that configures the test runner to skip tests whose name matches the provided pattern. See the documentation on filtering tests by name for more details. If both --test-name-pattern and --test-skip-pattern are supplied, tests must satisfy both requirements in order to be executed.

--test-timeout
    A number of milliseconds the test execution will fail after. If unspecified, subtests inherit this value from their parent. The default value is Infinity.

--test-update-snapshots
    Regenerates the snapshot files used by the test runner for snapshot testing.

--throw-deprecation
    Throw errors for deprecations.

--title=title
    Set process.title on startup.

--tls-cipher-list=list
    Specify an alternative default TLS cipher list. Requires Node.js to be built with crypto support (default).

--tls-keylog=file
    Log TLS key material to a file. The key material is in NSS SSLKEYLOGFILE format and can be used by software (such as Wireshark) to decrypt the TLS traffic.

--tls-max-v1.2
    Set tls.DEFAULT_MAX_VERSION to 'TLSv1.2'. Use to disable support for TLSv1.3.

--tls-max-v1.3
    Set default tls.DEFAULT_MAX_VERSION to 'TLSv1.3'. Use to enable support for TLSv1.3.

--tls-min-v1.0
    Set default tls.DEFAULT_MIN_VERSION to 'TLSv1'. Use for compatibility with old TLS clients or servers.

--tls-min-v1.1
    Set default tls.DEFAULT_MIN_VERSION to 'TLSv1.1'. Use for compatibility with old TLS clients or servers.

--tls-min-v1.2
    Set default tls.DEFAULT_MIN_VERSION to 'TLSv1.2'. This is the default for 12.x and later, but the option is supported for compatibility with older Node.js versions.

--tls-min-v1.3
    Set default tls.DEFAULT_MIN_VERSION to 'TLSv1.3'. Use to disable support for TLSv1.2, which is not as secure as TLSv1.3.

--trace-deprecation
    Print stack traces for deprecations.

--trace-env
    Print information about any access to environment variables done in the current Node.js instance to stderr, including:

    •   The environment variable reads that Node.js does internally.

    •   Writes in the form of process.env.KEY = "SOME VALUE".

    •   Reads in the form of process.env.KEY.

    •   Definitions in the form of Object.defineProperty(process.env, 'KEY', {...}).

    •   Queries in the form of Object.hasOwn(process.env, 'KEY'), process.env.hasOwnProperty('KEY') or 'KEY' in process.env.

    •   Deletions in the form of delete process.env.KEY.

    •   Enumerations inf the form of ...process.env or Object.keys(process.env).
    Only the names of the environment variables being accessed are printed. The values are not printed. To print the stack trace of the access, use --trace-env-js-stack and/or --trace-env-native-stack.

--trace-env-js-stack
    In addition to what --trace-env does, this prints the JavaScript stack trace of the access.

--trace-env-native-stack
    In addition to what --trace-env does, this prints the native stack trace of the access.

--trace-event-categories
    A comma separated list of categories that should be traced when trace event tracing is enabled using --trace-events-enabled.

--trace-event-file-pattern
    Template string specifying the filepath for the trace event data, it supports ${rotation} and ${pid}.

--trace-events-enabled
    Enables the collection of trace event tracing information.

--trace-exit
    Prints a stack trace whenever an environment is exited proactively, i.e. invoking process.exit().

--trace-require-module=mode
    Prints information about usage of Loading ECMAScript modules using require(). When mode is all, all usage is printed. When mode is no-node-modules, usage from the node_modules folder is excluded.

--trace-sigint
    Prints a stack trace on SIGINT.

--trace-sync-io
    Prints a stack trace whenever synchronous I/O is detected after the first turn of the event loop.

--trace-tls
    Prints TLS packet trace information to stderr. This can be used to debug TLS connection problems.

--trace-uncaught
    Print stack traces for uncaught exceptions; usually, the stack trace associated with the creation of an Error is printed, whereas this makes Node.js also print the stack trace associated with throwing the value (which does not need to be an Error instance). Enabling this option may affect garbage collection behavior negatively.

--trace-warnings
    Print stack traces for process warnings (including deprecations).

--track-heap-objects
    Track heap object allocations for heap snapshots.

--unhandled-rejections=mode
    Using this flag allows to change what should happen when an unhandled rejection occurs. One of the following modes can be chosen:

    •   throw: Emit unhandledRejection. If this hook is not set, raise the unhandled rejection as an uncaught exception. This is the default.

    •   strict: Raise the unhandled rejection as an uncaught exception. If the exception is handled, unhandledRejection is emitted.

    •   warn: Always trigger a warning, no matter if the unhandledRejection hook is set or not but do not print the deprecation warning.

    •   warn-with-error-code: Emit unhandledRejection. If this hook is not set, trigger a warning, and set the process exit code to 1.

    •   none: Silence all warnings.
    If a rejection happens during the command line entry point's ES module static loading phase, it will always raise it as an uncaught exception.

--use-bundled-ca, --use-openssl-ca
    Use bundled Mozilla CA store as supplied by current Node.js version or use OpenSSL's default CA store. The default store is selectable at build-time. The bundled CA store, as supplied by Node.js, is a snapshot of Mozilla CA store that is fixed at release time. It is identical on all supported platforms. Using OpenSSL store allows for external modifications of the store. For most Linux and BSD distributions, this store is maintained by the distribution maintainers and system administrators. OpenSSL CA store location is dependent on configuration of the OpenSSL library but this can be altered at runtime using environment variables. See SSL_CERT_DIR and SSL_CERT_FILE.

--use-env-proxy
    When enabled, Node.js parses the HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY and NO_PROXY environment variables during startup, and routes requests through the specified proxy. Use this only with proxies that are trusted and authorized for the deployment. Proxy support is intended for reaching external networks through authorized proxy servers, for example when a firewall requires one. It is not for hiding traffic or evading network policy. See Built-in Proxy Support. This is equivalent to setting the NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 environment variable. When both are set, --use-env-proxy takes precedence.

--use-largepages=mode
    Re-map the Node.js static code to large memory pages at startup. If supported on the target system, this will cause the Node.js static code to be moved onto 2 MiB pages instead of 4 KiB pages. The following values are valid for mode:

    •   off: No mapping will be attempted. This is the default.

    •   on: If supported by the OS, mapping will be attempted. Failure to map will be ignored and a message will be printed to standard error.

    •   silent: If supported by the OS, mapping will be attempted. Failure to map will be ignored and will not be reported.

--use-system-ca
    Node.js uses the trusted CA certificates present in the system store along with the --use-bundled-ca option and the NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable. On platforms other than Windows and macOS, this loads certificates from the directory and file trusted by OpenSSL, similar to --use-openssl-ca, with the difference being that it caches the certificates after first load. On Windows and macOS, the certificate trust policy is similar to Chromium's policy for locally trusted certificates, but with some differences: On macOS, the following settings are respected:

    •   Default and System Keychains.Bl -bullet

    •   Trust:.Bl -bullet

    •   Any certificate where the “When using this certificate” flag is set to “Always Trust” or

    •   Any certificate where the “Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)” flag is set to “Always Trust”.

    The certificate must also be valid, with "X.509 Basic Policy" set to “Always Trust”.
On Windows, the following settings are respected:

•   Local Machine (accessed via certlm.msc).Bl -bullet

•   Trust:.Bl -bullet

•   Trusted Root Certification Authorities

•   Trusted People

•   Enterprise Trust -> Enterprise -> Trusted Root Certification Authorities

•   Enterprise Trust -> Enterprise -> Trusted People

•   Enterprise Trust -> Group Policy -> Trusted Root Certification Authorities

•   Enterprise Trust -> Group Policy -> Trusted People
Current User (accessed via certmgr.msc).Bl -bullet Trust:.Bl -bullet Trusted Root Certification Authorities Enterprise Trust -> Group Policy -> Trusted Root Certification Authorities
On Windows and macOS, Node.js would check that the user settings for the trusted certificates do not forbid them for TLS server authentication before using them. Node.js currently does not support distrust/revocation of certificates from another source based on system settings. On other systems, Node.js loads certificates from the default certificate file (typically /etc/ssl/cert.pem) and default certificate directory (typically /etc/ssl/certs) that the version of OpenSSL that Node.js links to respects. This typically works with the convention on major Linux distributions and other Unix-like systems. If the overriding OpenSSL environment variables (typically SSL_CERT_FILE and SSL_CERT_DIR, depending on the configuration of the OpenSSL that Node.js links to) are set, the specified paths will be used to load certificates instead. These environment variables can be used as workarounds if the conventional paths used by the version of OpenSSL Node.js links to are not consistent with the system configuration that the users have for some reason. Print V8 command-line options. Set V8's thread pool size which will be used to allocate background jobs. If set to 0 then Node.js will choose an appropriate size of the thread pool based on an estimate of the amount of parallelism. The amount of parallelism refers to the number of computations that can be carried out simultaneously in a given machine. In general, it's the same as the amount of CPUs, but it may diverge in environments such as VMs or containers. Print node's version. Starts Node.js in watch mode. When in watch mode, changes in the watched files cause the Node.js process to restart. By default, watch mode will watch the entry point and any required or imported module. Use --watch-path to specify what paths to watch. This flag cannot be combined with --check, --eval, --interactive, or the REPL. Note: The --watch flag requires a file path as an argument and is incompatible with --run or inline script input, as --run takes precedence and ignores watch mode. If no file is provided, Node.js will exit with status code 9.

    node --watch index.js

Customizes the signal sent to the process on watch mode restarts.

    node --watch --watch-kill-signal SIGINT test.js

Starts Node.js in watch mode and specifies what paths to watch. When in watch mode, changes in the watched paths cause the Node.js process to restart. This will turn off watching of required or imported modules, even when used in combination with --watch. This flag cannot be combined with --check, --eval, --interactive, --test, or the REPL. Note: Using --watch-path implicitly enables --watch, which requires a file path and is incompatible with --run, as --run takes precedence and ignores watch mode.

    node --watch-path=./src --watch-path=./tests index.js

This option is only supported on macOS and Windows. An ERR_FEATURE_UNAVAILABLE_ON_PLATFORM exception will be thrown when the option is used on a platform that does not support it. Disable the clearing of the console when watch mode restarts the process.

    node --watch --watch-preserve-output test.js

Automatically zero-fills all newly allocated Buffer instances.

ENVIRONMENT

FORCE_COLOR [1, 2, 3]
    The FORCE_COLOR environment variable is used to enable ANSI colorized output. The value may be:

    •   1, true, or the empty string '' indicate 16-color support,

    •   2 to indicate 256-color support, or

    •   3 to indicate 16 million-color support.
    When FORCE_COLOR is used and set to a supported value, both the NO_COLOR, and NODE_DISABLE_COLORS environment variables are ignored. Any other value will result in colorized output being disabled.

NODE_COMPILE_CACHE dir
    Enable the module compile cache for the Node.js instance. See the documentation of module compile cache for details.

NODE_COMPILE_CACHE_PORTABLE 1
    When set to 1, the module compile cache can be reused across different directory locations as long as the module layout relative to the cache directory remains the same, and by any user (the cache subdirectory is not suffixed with the creating user's uid).

NODE_COMPILE_CACHE_READONLY 1
    When set to 1, the module compile cache only reads existing entries from its directory: nothing is written to it and it is not created if missing.

NODE_DEBUG module[,…]
    ','-separated list of core modules that should print debug information.

NODE_DEBUG_NATIVE module[,…]
    ','-separated list of core C++ modules that should print debug information.

NODE_DISABLE_COLORS 1
    When set, colors will not be used in the REPL.

NODE_DISABLE_COMPILE_CACHE 1
    Disable the module compile cache for the Node.js instance. See the documentation of module compile cache for details.

NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS file
    When set, the well known "root" CAs (like VeriSign) will be extended with the extra certificates in file. The file should consist of one or more trusted certificates in PEM format. A message will be emitted (once) with process.emitWarning() if the file is missing or malformed, but any errors are otherwise ignored. Neither the well known nor extra certificates are used when the ca options property is explicitly specified for a TLS or HTTPS client or server. This environment variable is ignored when node runs as setuid root or has Linux file capabilities set. The NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable is only read when the Node.js process is first launched. Changing the value at runtime using process.env.NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS has no effect on the current process.

NODE_ICU_DATA file
    Data path for ICU (Intl object) data. Will extend linked-in data when compiled with small-icu support.

NODE_NO_WARNINGS 1
    When set to 1, process warnings are silenced.

NODE_OPTIONS options...
    A space-separated list of command-line options. options... are interpreted before command-line options, so command-line options will override or compound after anything in options.... Node.js will exit with an error if an option that is not allowed in the environment is used, such as -p or a script file. If an option value contains a space, it can be escaped using double quotes:

        NODE_OPTIONS='--require "./my path/file.js"'

    A singleton flag passed as a command-line option will override the same flag passed into NODE_OPTIONS:

        # The inspector will be available on port 5555
        NODE_OPTIONS='--inspect=localhost:4444' node --inspect=localhost:5555

    A flag that can be passed multiple times will be treated as if its NODE_OPTIONS instances were passed first, and then its command-line instances afterwards:

        NODE_OPTIONS='--require "./a.js"' node --require "./b.js"
        # is equivalent to:
        node --require "./a.js" --require "./b.js"

    Node.js options that are allowed are in the following list. If an option supports both --XX and --no-XX variants, they are both supported but only one is included in the list below.

    •   --allow-addons

    •   --allow-child-process

    •   --allow-ffi

    •   --allow-fs-read

    •   --allow-fs-write

    •   --allow-inspector

    •   --allow-net

    •   --allow-openssl-store

    •   --allow-wasi

    •   --allow-worker

    •   --conditions, -C

    •   --cpu-prof-dir

    •   --cpu-prof-interval

    •   --cpu-prof-name

    •   --cpu-prof

    •   --diagnostic-dir

    •   --disable-proto

    •   --disable-sigusr1

    •   --disable-warning

    •   --disable-wasm-trap-handler

    •   --dns-result-order

    •   --enable-fips

    •   --enable-network-family-autoselection

    •   --enable-source-maps

    •   --entry-url

    •   --experimental-abortcontroller

    •   --experimental-addon-modules

    •   --experimental-detect-module

    •   --experimental-eventsource

    •   --experimental-ffi

    •   --experimental-import-meta-resolve

    •   --experimental-import-text

    •   --experimental-json-modules

    •   --experimental-loader

    •   --experimental-modules

    •   --experimental-package-map

    •   --experimental-print-required-tla

    •   --experimental-quic

    •   --experimental-require-module

    •   --experimental-shadow-realm

    •   --experimental-specifier-resolution

    •   --experimental-stream-iter

    •   --experimental-test-isolation

    •   --experimental-top-level-await

    •   --experimental-vfs

    •   --experimental-vm-modules

    •   --experimental-wasi-unstable-preview1

    •   --force-context-aware

    •   --force-fips

    •   --force-node-api-uncaught-exceptions-policy

    •   --frozen-intrinsics

    •   --heap-prof-dir

    •   --heap-prof-interval

    •   --heap-prof-name

    •   --heap-prof

    •   --heapsnapshot-near-heap-limit

    •   --heapsnapshot-signal

    •   --http-parser

    •   --icu-data-dir

    •   --import

    •   --input-type

    •   --insecure-http-parser

    •   --inspect-brk

    •   --inspect-port, --debug-port

    •   --inspect-publish-uid

    •   --inspect-wait

    •   --inspect

    •   --localstorage-file

    •   --max-http-header-size

    •   --max-old-space-size-percentage

    •   --network-family-autoselection-attempt-timeout

    •   --no-addons

    •   --no-async-context-frame

    •   --no-deprecation

    •   --no-experimental-global-navigator

    •   --no-experimental-repl-await

    •   --no-experimental-sqlite

    •   --no-experimental-strip-types

    •   --no-experimental-websocket

    •   --no-experimental-webstorage

    •   --no-extra-info-on-fatal-exception

    •   --no-force-async-hooks-checks

    •   --no-global-search-paths

    •   --no-network-family-autoselection

    •   --no-strip-types

    •   --no-warnings

    •   --no-webstorage

    •   --node-memory-debug

    •   --openssl-config

    •   --openssl-legacy-provider

    •   --openssl-shared-config

    •   --pending-deprecation

    •   --permission-audit

    •   --permission

    •   --preserve-symlinks-main

    •   --preserve-symlinks

    •   --prof-process

    •   --redirect-warnings

    •   --report-compact

    •   --report-dir, --report-directory

    •   --report-exclude-env

    •   --report-exclude-network

    •   --report-filename

    •   --report-on-fatalerror

    •   --report-on-signal

    •   --report-signal

    •   --report-uncaught-exception

    •   --require-module

    •   --require, -r

    •   --secure-heap-min

    •   --secure-heap

    •   --snapshot-blob

    •   --test-coverage-branches

    •   --test-coverage-exclude

    •   --test-coverage-functions

    •   --test-coverage-include-all

    •   --test-coverage-include

    •   --test-coverage-lines

    •   --test-global-setup

    •   --test-isolation

    •   --test-name-pattern

    •   --test-only

    •   --test-random-seed

    •   --test-randomize

    •   --test-reporter-destination

    •   --test-reporter

    •   --test-rerun-failures

    •   --test-shard

    •   --test-skip-pattern

    •   --throw-deprecation

    •   --title

    •   --tls-cipher-list

    •   --tls-keylog

    •   --tls-max-v1.2

    •   --tls-max-v1.3

    •   --tls-min-v1.0

    •   --tls-min-v1.1

    •   --tls-min-v1.2

    •   --tls-min-v1.3

    •   --trace-deprecation

    •   --trace-env-js-stack

    •   --trace-env-native-stack

    •   --trace-env

    •   --trace-event-categories

    •   --trace-event-file-pattern

    •   --trace-events-enabled

    •   --trace-exit

    •   --trace-require-module

    •   --trace-sigint

    •   --trace-sync-io

    •   --trace-tls

    •   --trace-uncaught

    •   --trace-warnings

    •   --track-heap-objects

    •   --unhandled-rejections

    •   --use-bundled-ca

    •   --use-env-proxy

    •   --use-largepages

    •   --use-openssl-ca

    •   --use-system-ca

    •   --v8-pool-size

    •   --watch-kill-signal

    •   --watch-path

    •   --watch-preserve-output

    •   --watch

    •   --zero-fill-buffers
    V8 options that are allowed are:

    •   --abort-on-uncaught-exception

    •   --disallow-code-generation-from-strings

    •   --enable-etw-stack-walking

    •   --expose-gc

    •   --interpreted-frames-native-stack

    •   --jitless

    •   --max-heap-size

    •   --max-old-space-size

    •   --max-semi-space-size

    •   --perf-basic-prof-only-functions

    •   --perf-basic-prof

    •   --perf-prof-unwinding-info

    •   --perf-prof

    •   --stack-trace-limit
    --perf-basic-prof-only-functions, --perf-basic-prof, --perf-prof-unwinding-info, and --perf-prof are only available on Linux. --enable-etw-stack-walking is only available on Windows.

NODE_PATH path[:…]
    ':'-separated list of directories prefixed to the module search path. On Windows, this is a ';'-separated list instead.

NODE_PENDING_DEPRECATION 1
    When set to 1, emit pending deprecation warnings. Pending deprecations are generally identical to a runtime deprecation with the notable exception that they are turned off by default and will not be emitted unless either the --pending-deprecation command-line flag, or the NODE_PENDING_DEPRECATION=1 environment variable, is set. Pending deprecations are used to provide a kind of selective "early warning" mechanism that developers may leverage to detect deprecated API usage.

NODE_PENDING_PIPE_INSTANCES instances
    Set the number of pending pipe instance handles when the pipe server is waiting for connections. This setting applies to Windows only.

NODE_PRESERVE_SYMLINKS 1
    When set to 1, instructs the module loader to preserve symbolic links when resolving and caching modules.

NODE_REDIRECT_WARNINGS file
    When set, process warnings will be emitted to the given file instead of printing to stderr. The file will be created if it does not exist, and will be appended to if it does. If an error occurs while attempting to write the warning to the file, the warning will be written to stderr instead. This is equivalent to using the --redirect-warnings=file command-line flag.

NODE_REPL_EXTERNAL_MODULE file
    Path to a Node.js module which will be loaded in place of the built-in REPL. Overriding this value to an empty string ('') will use the built-in REPL.

NODE_REPL_HISTORY file
    Path to the file used to store the persistent REPL history. The default path is ~/.node_repl_history, which is overridden by this variable. Setting the value to an empty string ('' or ' ') disables persistent REPL history.

NODE_SKIP_PLATFORM_CHECK value
    If value equals '1', the check for a supported platform is skipped during Node.js startup. Node.js might not execute correctly. Any issues encountered on unsupported platforms will not be fixed.

NODE_TEST_CONTEXT value
    If value equals 'child', test reporter options will be overridden and test output will be sent to stdout in the TAP format. If any other value is provided, Node.js makes no guarantees about the reporter format used or its stability.

NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED value
    If value equals '0', certificate validation is disabled for TLS connections. This makes TLS, and HTTPS by extension, insecure. The use of this environment variable is strongly discouraged.

NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY 1
    When enabled, Node.js parses the HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY and NO_PROXY environment variables during startup, and routes requests through the specified proxy. Use this only with proxies that are trusted and authorized for the deployment. Proxy support is intended for reaching external networks through authorized proxy servers, for example when a firewall requires one. It is not for hiding traffic or evading network policy. See Built-in Proxy Support. This can also be enabled using the --use-env-proxy command-line flag. When both are set, --use-env-proxy takes precedence.

NODE_USE_SYSTEM_CA 1
    Node.js uses the trusted CA certificates present in the system store along with the --use-bundled-ca option and the NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable. This can also be enabled using the --use-system-ca command-line flag. When both are set, --use-system-ca takes precedence.

NODE_V8_COVERAGE dir
    When set, Node.js will begin outputting V8 JavaScript code coverage and Source Map data to the directory provided as an argument (coverage information is written as JSON to files with a coverage prefix). NODE_V8_COVERAGE will automatically propagate to subprocesses, making it easier to instrument applications that call the child_process.spawn() family of functions. NODE_V8_COVERAGE can be set to an empty string, to prevent propagation.

NO_COLOR <any>
    NO_COLOR is an alias for NODE_DISABLE_COLORS. The value of the environment variable is arbitrary.

OPENSSL_CONF file
    Load an OpenSSL configuration file on startup. The file can be used as part of a FIPS mode configuration. If the variable is set to an empty value, Node.js starts without loading any OpenSSL configuration file. This is a way past a default configuration file that exists but cannot be read, for example when /etc/ssl is not accessible to the user Node.js runs as, which is otherwise fatal at startup. No configuration is applied in that case, including any FIPS mode setup the file would have performed. If the --openssl-config command-line option is used, the environment variable is ignored, and an empty value has no effect.

SSL_CERT_DIR dir
    If --use-openssl-ca is enabled, or if --use-system-ca is enabled on platforms other than macOS and Windows, this overrides and sets OpenSSL's directory containing trusted certificates. Be aware that unless the child environment is explicitly set, this environment variable will be inherited by any child processes, and if they use OpenSSL, it may cause them to trust the same CAs as node.

SSL_CERT_FILE file
    If --use-openssl-ca is enabled, or if --use-system-ca is enabled on platforms other than macOS and Windows, this overrides and sets OpenSSL's file containing trusted certificates. Be aware that unless the child environment is explicitly set, this environment variable will be inherited by any child processes, and if they use OpenSSL, it may cause them to trust the same CAs as node.

TZ  The TZ environment variable is used to specify the timezone configuration. While Node.js does not support all of the various ways that TZ is handled in other environments, it does support basic timezone IDs (such as 'Etc/UTC', 'Europe/Paris', or 'America/New_York'). It may support a few other abbreviations or aliases, but these are strongly discouraged and not guaranteed.

        $ TZ=Europe/Dublin node -pe "new Date().toString()"
        Wed May 12 2021 20:30:48 GMT+0100 (Irish Standard Time)

UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE size
    Set the number of threads used in libuv's threadpool to size threads. Asynchronous system APIs are used by Node.js whenever possible, but where they do not exist, libuv's threadpool is used to create asynchronous node APIs based on synchronous system APIs. Node.js APIs that use the threadpool are:

    •   all fs APIs, other than the file watcher APIs and those that are explicitly synchronous

    •   asynchronous crypto APIs such as crypto.pbkdf2(), crypto.scrypt(), crypto.randomBytes(), crypto.randomFill(), crypto.generateKeyPair()

    •   dns.lookup()

    •   all zlib APIs, other than those that are explicitly synchronous
    Because libuv's threadpool has a fixed size, it means that if for whatever reason any of these APIs takes a long time, other (seemingly unrelated) APIs that run in libuv's threadpool will experience degraded performance. In order to mitigate this issue, one potential solution is to increase the size of libuv's threadpool by setting the 'UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE' environment variable to a value greater than 4 (its current default value). However, setting this from inside the process using process.env.UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE=size is not guaranteed to work as the threadpool would have been created as part of the runtime initialisation much before user code is run. For more information, see the libuv threadpool documentation.

BUGS
Bugs are tracked in GitHub Issues: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues

COPYRIGHT
Copyright Node.js contributors. Node.js is available under the MIT license.

Node.js also includes external libraries that are available under a variety of licenses. See https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/HEAD/LICENSE for the full license text.

SEE ALSO
Website: https://nodejs.org/

Documentation: https://nodejs.org/api/

GitHub repository and issue tracker: https://github.com/nodejs/node