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How do you replicate __dirname in ES Modules using import.meta.url?

Q: How do you replicate __dirname in ES Modules using import.meta.url?

**TL;DR.** ESM has **no __dirname / __filename **. Derive them from import.meta.url (the module's file URL) with fileURLToPath : convert the URL to a path, then take its directory. Modern Node also exposes import.meta.dirname and import.meta.filename directly. import.meta.url file:///app/x.js fileURLToPath /app/x.js <p

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Recovering directory/file paths in ESM where __dirname is undefined.

nodejsesmimport-metapaths

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ESM __dirname

import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
import path from 'node:path';

const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
const __dirname = path.dirname(__filename);

// Newer Node — no boilerplate:
// const __dirname = import.meta.dirname;
const cfg = path.join(__dirname, 'config.json');

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