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
    • NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=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.

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 printed to stderr (once) if the file is missing or misformatted, but any errors are otherwise ignored.

Note that 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.