Table of Contents

• Command Line Options
  • Synopsis
  • Options
    • -v, --version
    • -h, --help
    • -e, --eval "script"
    • -p, --print "script"
    • -c, --check
    • -i, --interactive
    • -r, --require module
    • --no-deprecation
    • --trace-deprecation
    • --throw-deprecation
    • --trace-sync-io
    • --zero-fill-buffers
    • --track-heap-objects
    • --prof-process
    • --v8-options
    • --tls-cipher-list=list
    • --enable-fips
    • --force-fips
    • --icu-data-dir=file
  • Environment Variables
    • NODE_DEBUG=module[,…]
    • NODE_PATH=path[:…]
    • NODE_DISABLE_COLORS=1
    • NODE_ICU_DATA=file
    • NODE_REPL_HISTORY=file

Command Line Options#

Node.js comes with a variety of CLI options. These options expose built-in debugging, multiple ways to execute scripts, and other helpful runtime options.

To view this documentation as a manual page in your terminal, run man node.

Synopsis#

node [options] [v8 options] [script.js | -e "script"] [arguments]

node debug [script.js | -e "script" | <host>:<port>] …

node --v8-options

Execute without arguments to start the REPL.

For more info about node debug, please see the debugger documentation.

Options#

-v, --version#

Print node's version.

-h, --help#

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

-e, --eval "script"#

Evaluate the following argument as JavaScript.

-p, --print "script"#

Identical to -e but prints the result.

-c, --check#

Syntax check the script without executing.

-i, --interactive#

Opens the REPL even if stdin does not appear to be a terminal.

-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.

--no-deprecation#

Silence deprecation warnings.

--trace-deprecation#

Print stack traces for deprecations.

--throw-deprecation#

Throw errors for deprecations.

--trace-sync-io#

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

--zero-fill-buffers#

Automatically zero-fills all newly allocated Buffer and SlowBuffer instances.

--track-heap-objects#

Track heap object allocations for heap snapshots.

--prof-process#

Process v8 profiler output generated using the v8 option --prof.

--v8-options#

Print v8 command line options.

--tls-cipher-list=list#

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

--enable-fips#

Enable FIPS-compliant crypto at startup. (Requires Node.js to be built with ./configure --openssl-fips)

--force-fips#

Force FIPS-compliant crypto on startup. (Cannot be disabled from script code.) (Same requirements as --enable-fips)

--icu-data-dir=file#

Specify ICU data load path. (overrides NODE_ICU_DATA)

Environment Variables#

NODE_DEBUG=module[,…]#

','-separated list of core modules that should print debug information.

NODE_PATH=path[:…]#

':'-separated list of directories prefixed to the module search path.

Note: on Windows, this is a ';'-separated list instead.

NODE_DISABLE_COLORS=1#

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

NODE_ICU_DATA=file#

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

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.