Node.js Built-in Modules API Guide

SharpTS provides implementations of common Node.js built-in modules. This guide documents the supported APIs for TypeScript developers familiar with Node.js.

Import Syntax

All three import styles are supported:

// Default import (recommended for most modules)
import fs from 'fs';
import os from 'os';

// Named imports (for specific functions)
import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'fs';
import { createHash, randomUUID } from 'crypto';

// Namespace import
import * as path from 'path';

// Mixed imports
import path, { join, resolve } from 'path';

assert

Assertion testing utilities for validating code behavior.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`ok`	`ok(value, message?)`	Assert value is truthy
`strictEqual`	`strictEqual(actual, expected, message?)`	Assert strict equality (`===`)
`notStrictEqual`	`notStrictEqual(actual, expected, message?)`	Assert strict inequality (`!==`)
`equal`	`equal(actual, expected, message?)`	Assert loose equality (`==`)
`notEqual`	`notEqual(actual, expected, message?)`	Assert loose inequality (`!=`)
`deepStrictEqual`	`deepStrictEqual(actual, expected, message?)`	Assert deep strict equality
`notDeepStrictEqual`	`notDeepStrictEqual(actual, expected, message?)`	Assert deep inequality
`throws`	`throws(fn, message?)`	Assert function throws
`doesNotThrow`	`doesNotThrow(fn, message?)`	Assert function doesn't throw
`fail`	`fail(message?)`	Always throws assertion error

Example

import { strictEqual, deepStrictEqual, throws } from 'assert';

strictEqual(1 + 1, 2);
strictEqual('hello'.length, 5);

deepStrictEqual({ a: 1, b: 2 }, { a: 1, b: 2 });

throws(() => {
  throw new Error('expected error');
});

AssertionError

All assertions throw AssertionError on failure with properties:

message - Error message
actual - Actual value
expected - Expected value
operator - Assertion operator name

child_process

Execute external processes and shell commands.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`execSync`	`execSync(command, options?)`	Execute shell command synchronously
`spawnSync`	`spawnSync(command, args?, options?)`	Spawn process synchronously
`execFileSync`	`execFileSync(file, args?, options?)`	Execute file synchronously without shell
`exec`	`exec(command, options?, callback?)`	Execute shell command asynchronously
`execFile`	`execFile(file, args?, options?, callback?)`	Execute file asynchronously without shell
`spawn`	`spawn(command, args?, options?)`	Spawn a child process, returns `ChildProcess`
`fork`	`fork(modulePath, args?, options?)`	Spawn a Node child with IPC channel

execSync Options

{
  cwd?: string,      // Working directory
  timeout?: number,  // Timeout in milliseconds
  env?: object       // Environment variables
}

spawnSync Options

{
  cwd?: string,    // Working directory
  shell?: boolean, // Run in shell
  env?: object     // Environment variables
}

spawnSync Return Value

{
  stdout: string,      // Standard output
  stderr: string,      // Standard error
  status: number|null, // Exit code (null on success)
  signal: string|null, // Signal if killed
  error: string|null   // Error message if failed
}

Example

import { execSync, spawnSync } from 'child_process';

// Execute shell command
const output = execSync('echo hello');
console.log(output); // "hello"

// Execute with options
const result = execSync('ls -la', { cwd: '/tmp' });

// Spawn process with arguments
const spawn = spawnSync('git', ['status'], { cwd: '/my/repo' });
console.log(spawn.stdout);

crypto

Cryptographic functions for hashing and random number generation.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`createHash`	`createHash(algorithm)`	Create a Hash object
`randomBytes`	`randomBytes(size)`	Generate secure random bytes
`randomUUID`	`randomUUID()`	Generate random UUID v4
`randomInt`	`randomInt(max)` or `randomInt(min, max)`	Generate random integer

Supported Hash Algorithms

md5
sha1
sha256
sha384
sha512

Hash Object Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`update`	`update(data)`	Add data to hash (chainable)
`digest`	`digest(encoding?)`	Finalize and return digest

Digest encodings: 'hex', 'base64', or omit for raw bytes.

Example

import { createHash, randomBytes, randomUUID, randomInt } from 'crypto';

// Create SHA-256 hash
const hash = createHash('sha256')
  .update('hello')
  .update('world')
  .digest('hex');
console.log(hash); // "936a185caaa266bb9cbe981e9e05cb78cd732b0b3280eb944412bb6f8f8f07af"

// Generate random bytes
const bytes = randomBytes(16);

// Generate UUID
const uuid = randomUUID();
console.log(uuid); // "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"

// Random integers
const n = randomInt(100);        // 0-99
const m = randomInt(10, 20);     // 10-19

fs

File system operations. Synchronous, callback-style async, and promise-based APIs are all supported. For promise-based APIs see the fs/promises section below.

File Operations (sync)

Method	Signature	Description
`existsSync`	`existsSync(path)`	Check if path exists
`readFileSync`	`readFileSync(path, encoding?)`	Read file contents
`writeFileSync`	`writeFileSync(path, data, encoding?)`	Write to file
`appendFileSync`	`appendFileSync(path, data, encoding?)`	Append to file
`copyFileSync`	`copyFileSync(src, dest)`	Copy file
`renameSync`	`renameSync(oldPath, newPath)`	Rename/move file
`unlinkSync`	`unlinkSync(path)`	Delete file
`truncateSync`	`truncateSync(path, len?)`	Truncate file to length
`openSync`	`openSync(path, flags, mode?)`	Open file, return fd
`closeSync`	`closeSync(fd)`	Close file descriptor
`readSync`	`readSync(fd, buffer, offset, length, position?)`	Read from fd
`writeSync`	`writeSync(fd, buffer, ...)`	Write to fd
`ftruncateSync`	`ftruncateSync(fd, len?)`	Truncate via fd
`fstatSync`	`fstatSync(fd)`	Stat via fd

Directory Operations (sync)

Method	Signature	Description
`mkdirSync`	`mkdirSync(path, options?)`	Create directory
`mkdtempSync`	`mkdtempSync(prefix)`	Create unique temp directory
`rmdirSync`	`rmdirSync(path, options?)`	Remove directory
`readdirSync`	`readdirSync(path, options?)`	List directory contents
`opendirSync`	`opendirSync(path)`	Open directory handle

File Information / Permissions (sync)

Method	Signature	Description
`statSync`	`statSync(path)`	Get file/directory stats
`lstatSync`	`lstatSync(path)`	Get stats (symlink-aware)
`accessSync`	`accessSync(path, mode?)`	Check file accessibility
`realpathSync`	`realpathSync(path)`	Resolve canonical path
`readlinkSync`	`readlinkSync(path)`	Read symlink target
`symlinkSync`	`symlinkSync(target, path, type?)`	Create symlink
`linkSync`	`linkSync(existing, new)`	Create hard link
`chmodSync`	`chmodSync(path, mode)`	Change permissions
`chownSync`	`chownSync(path, uid, gid)`	Change ownership
`lchownSync`	`lchownSync(path, uid, gid)`	Change ownership (symlink-aware)
`utimesSync`	`utimesSync(path, atime, mtime)`	Update access/modification times

Callback-style Async

Most file/directory sync methods have callback-style counterparts with the trailing (err, result) => … pattern: readFile, writeFile, appendFile, copyFile, rename, unlink, mkdir, readdir, stat, lstat, access, chmod, chown. Use fs/promises for Promise-returning equivalents.

Stat Object Properties

{
  isDirectory: boolean,
  isFile: boolean,
  size: number
}

rmdirSync Options

{
  recursive?: boolean  // Remove directory and contents
}

Example

import fs from 'fs';

// Read and write files
const content = fs.readFileSync('input.txt', 'utf8');
fs.writeFileSync('output.txt', content.toUpperCase());

// Check existence
if (fs.existsSync('config.json')) {
  const config = fs.readFileSync('config.json', 'utf8');
}

// Directory operations
fs.mkdirSync('new-folder');
const files = fs.readdirSync('.');
console.log(files);

// File stats
const stats = fs.statSync('myfile.txt');
if (stats.isFile) {
  console.log(`Size: ${stats.size} bytes`);
}

// Remove directory recursively
fs.rmdirSync('old-folder', { recursive: true });

Error Codes

Node.js-compatible error codes are thrown:

ENOENT - File/directory not found
EACCES - Permission denied
EEXIST - File already exists
EISDIR - Is a directory (expected file)
ENOTDIR - Not a directory
ENOTEMPTY - Directory not empty

os

Operating system information and utilities.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`platform`	`platform()`	Get OS platform
`arch`	`arch()`	Get CPU architecture
`hostname`	`hostname()`	Get machine hostname
`homedir`	`homedir()`	Get user home directory
`tmpdir`	`tmpdir()`	Get temp directory path
`type`	`type()`	Get OS type
`release`	`release()`	Get OS release version
`cpus`	`cpus()`	Get CPU information
`totalmem`	`totalmem()`	Get total system memory
`freemem`	`freemem()`	Get free system memory
`userInfo`	`userInfo()`	Get current user info

Properties

Property	Type	Description
`EOL`	`string`	End-of-line character

Platform Values

'win32' - Windows
'linux' - Linux
'darwin' - macOS

Architecture Values

'x64' - 64-bit x86
'ia32' - 32-bit x86
'arm64' - 64-bit ARM
'arm' - 32-bit ARM

cpus() Return Value

[
  { model: string, speed: number },
  // ...
]

userInfo() Return Value

{
  username: string,
  uid: number,
  gid: number,
  shell: string,
  homedir: string
}

Example

import os from 'os';

console.log(`Platform: ${os.platform()}`);  // "win32", "linux", "darwin"
console.log(`Architecture: ${os.arch()}`);  // "x64"
console.log(`Hostname: ${os.hostname()}`);
console.log(`Home: ${os.homedir()}`);
console.log(`Temp: ${os.tmpdir()}`);

// Memory info
const totalGB = os.totalmem() / (1024 * 1024 * 1024);
const freeGB = os.freemem() / (1024 * 1024 * 1024);
console.log(`Memory: ${freeGB.toFixed(1)}GB free of ${totalGB.toFixed(1)}GB`);

// CPU info
const cpus = os.cpus();
console.log(`CPUs: ${cpus.length} cores`);

path

File path manipulation utilities.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`join`	`join(...parts)`	Join path segments
`resolve`	`resolve(...parts)`	Resolve to absolute path
`basename`	`basename(path, ext?)`	Get filename
`dirname`	`dirname(path)`	Get directory name
`extname`	`extname(path)`	Get file extension
`normalize`	`normalize(path)`	Normalize path
`isAbsolute`	`isAbsolute(path)`	Check if path is absolute
`relative`	`relative(from, to)`	Get relative path
`parse`	`parse(path)`	Parse path to components
`format`	`format(pathObj)`	Build path from components

Properties

Property	Type	Description
`sep`	`string`	Path separator (`/` or `\\`)
`delimiter`	`string`	Path list delimiter (`:` or `;`)

parse() Return Value

{
  root: string,  // "/" or "C:\\"
  dir: string,   // Directory path
  base: string,  // Filename with extension
  name: string,  // Filename without extension
  ext: string    // Extension including dot
}

Example

import path from 'path';

// Join paths
const fullPath = path.join('/users', 'john', 'documents', 'file.txt');
// "/users/john/documents/file.txt"

// Resolve to absolute
const absolute = path.resolve('./src', '../lib', 'utils.ts');

// Extract parts
console.log(path.dirname('/a/b/c.txt'));   // "/a/b"
console.log(path.basename('/a/b/c.txt'));  // "c.txt"
console.log(path.extname('/a/b/c.txt'));   // ".txt"

// Remove extension
console.log(path.basename('file.ts', '.ts')); // "file"

// Parse path
const parsed = path.parse('/home/user/file.txt');
// { root: "/", dir: "/home/user", base: "file.txt", name: "file", ext: ".txt" }

// Build path
const built = path.format({ dir: '/home/user', base: 'file.txt' });
// "/home/user/file.txt"

// Relative path
console.log(path.relative('/a/b/c', '/a/d/e')); // "../../d/e"

process

Process information and control.

Properties

Property	Type	Description
`platform`	`string`	OS platform
`arch`	`string`	CPU architecture
`pid`	`number`	Process ID
`version`	`string`	Node.js version string
`env`	`object`	Environment variables
`argv`	`string[]`	Command-line arguments
`exitCode`	`number`	Current exit code
`stdin`	`Stream`	Standard input
`stdout`	`Stream`	Standard output
`stderr`	`Stream`	Standard error

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`cwd`	`cwd()`	Get current working directory
`chdir`	`chdir(path)`	Change working directory
`exit`	`exit(code?)`	Exit process
`hrtime`	`hrtime(time?)`	High-resolution time
`uptime`	`uptime()`	Process uptime in seconds
`memoryUsage`	`memoryUsage()`	Memory usage statistics

Example

import process from 'process';

// Environment
console.log(`Platform: ${process.platform}`);
console.log(`PID: ${process.pid}`);
console.log(`CWD: ${process.cwd()}`);

// Environment variables
const home = process.env.HOME || process.env.USERPROFILE;
console.log(`Home: ${home}`);

// Command-line arguments
process.argv.forEach((arg, index) => {
  console.log(`argv[${index}]: ${arg}`);
});

// Change directory
process.chdir('/tmp');

// Timing
const start = process.hrtime();
// ... some operation ...
const elapsed = process.hrtime(start);
console.log(`Took ${elapsed[0]}s ${elapsed[1]}ns`);

// Memory
const mem = process.memoryUsage();
console.log(`Heap used: ${mem.heapUsed}`);

querystring

URL query string parsing and serialization.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`parse`	`parse(str, sep?, eq?, options?)`	Parse query string to object
`stringify`	`stringify(obj, sep?, eq?, options?)`	Convert object to query string
`escape`	`escape(str)`	Percent-encode string
`unescape`	`unescape(str)`	Percent-decode string
`decode`	-	Alias for `parse`
`encode`	-	Alias for `stringify`

Example

import querystring from 'querystring';

// Parse query string
const parsed = querystring.parse('name=john&age=30&hobby=coding&hobby=gaming');
// { name: "john", age: "30", hobby: ["coding", "gaming"] }

// Stringify object
const qs = querystring.stringify({ name: 'john', tags: ['a', 'b'] });
// "name=john&tags=a&tags=b"

// Custom separators
const custom = querystring.parse('name:john;age:30', ';', ':');
// { name: "john", age: "30" }

// Escape/unescape
const escaped = querystring.escape('hello world');  // "hello%20world"
const decoded = querystring.unescape('hello%20world'); // "hello world"

readline

User input handling for interactive applications.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`questionSync`	`questionSync(query)`	Prompt user synchronously
`createInterface`	`createInterface(options?)`	Create readline interface

Interface Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`question`	`question(query, callback)`	Ask question with callback
`close`	`close()`	Close the interface
`prompt`	`prompt()`	Display prompt character

Example

import readline from 'readline';

// Simple synchronous prompt
const name = readline.questionSync('What is your name? ');
console.log(`Hello, ${name}!`);

// Using interface
const rl = readline.createInterface();

rl.question('Enter a number: ', (answer) => {
  console.log(`You entered: ${answer}`);
  rl.close();
});

url

URL parsing and manipulation.

Classes

URL (WHATWG URL API)

new URL(urlString, baseUrl?)

Properties:

href - Full URL string
protocol - Protocol with colon (e.g., 'https:')
host - Host with port
hostname - Host without port
port - Port number as string
pathname - Path portion
search - Query string with ?
hash - Fragment with #
origin - Protocol + host
username - Username portion
password - Password portion
searchParams - URLSearchParams object

URLSearchParams

new URLSearchParams(init?)

Methods:

get(name) - Get first value for name
getAll(name) - Get all values for name
has(name) - Check if name exists
set(name, value) - Set value (replaces existing)
append(name, value) - Append value
delete(name) - Remove all values for name
keys() - Get all keys
values() - Get all values
size - Number of parameters

Legacy Functions

Function	Signature	Description
`parse`	`parse(urlString, parseQueryString?, slashesDenoteHost?)`	Parse URL string
`format`	`format(urlObject)`	Format URL object to string
`resolve`	`resolve(from, to)`	Resolve relative URL

Example

import { URL, URLSearchParams } from 'url';

// Parse URL
const url = new URL('https://example.com:8080/path?query=value#hash');
console.log(url.hostname);  // "example.com"
console.log(url.port);      // "8080"
console.log(url.pathname);  // "/path"
console.log(url.search);    // "?query=value"

// Modify URL
url.pathname = '/new-path';
url.searchParams.set('foo', 'bar');
console.log(url.href);

// URLSearchParams
const params = new URLSearchParams('a=1&b=2&a=3');
console.log(params.get('a'));     // "1"
console.log(params.getAll('a'));  // ["1", "3"]
params.append('c', '4');
params.delete('b');

// Resolve relative URLs
import { resolve } from 'url';
const absolute = resolve('https://example.com/a/b', '../c');
// "https://example.com/a/c"

util

Utility functions for formatting and type checking.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`format`	`format(format, ...args)`	Format string with placeholders
`inspect`	`inspect(value, options?)`	Convert value to string representation

format() Placeholders

Placeholder	Description
`%s`	String
`%d`, `%i`	Integer
`%f`	Float
`%j`	JSON
`%o`, `%O`	Object
`%%`	Literal `%`

inspect() Options

{
  depth?: number  // Recursion depth (default: 2)
}

types Object

Type checking utilities:

Method	Signature	Description
`isArray`	`isArray(value)`	Check if array
`isDate`	`isDate(value)`	Check if Date
`isFunction`	`isFunction(value)`	Check if function
`isNull`	`isNull(value)`	Check if null
`isUndefined`	`isUndefined(value)`	Check if undefined

Example

import util from 'util';

// Format strings
const msg = util.format('Hello %s, you have %d messages', 'John', 5);
// "Hello John, you have 5 messages"

const json = util.format('Data: %j', { a: 1, b: 2 });
// "Data: {\"a\":1,\"b\":2}"

// Inspect objects
const obj = { nested: { deep: { value: 42 } } };
console.log(util.inspect(obj, { depth: 1 }));
// "{ nested: { deep: [Object] } }"

// Type checking
console.log(util.types.isArray([1, 2, 3]));  // true
console.log(util.types.isFunction(() => {})); // true
console.log(util.types.isNull(null));         // true

fs/promises

Promise-based counterparts of the fs callback API. Every listed method returns a Promise and accepts the same arguments as the synchronous form (minus the error-first callback).

Method	Description
`readFile`	Read file contents
`writeFile`	Write file contents
`appendFile`	Append to file
`copyFile`	Copy file
`rename`	Rename/move
`unlink`	Delete file
`truncate`	Truncate to length
`mkdir`	Create directory
`mkdtemp`	Create temp directory
`rmdir` / `rm`	Remove directory/file
`readdir`	List directory contents
`stat` / `lstat`	File info
`access`	Check accessibility
`chmod`	Change permissions
`realpath`	Resolve canonical path
`readlink` / `symlink` / `link`	Symlink / hardlink ops
`utimes`	Update atime/mtime
`open`	Returns a `FileHandle`

Example

import { readFile, writeFile } from 'fs/promises';

const content = await readFile('input.txt', 'utf8');
await writeFile('output.txt', content.toUpperCase());

buffer

Binary data handling via the Buffer class. Buffer is also exposed as a global — import is only required when the consumer wants the named binding.

Static Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`from`	`Buffer.from(source, encoding?)`	Create from string, array, or ArrayBuffer
`alloc`	`Buffer.alloc(size, fill?, encoding?)`	Allocate zero-filled buffer
`allocUnsafe`	`Buffer.allocUnsafe(size)`	Allocate without zeroing
`allocUnsafeSlow`	`Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(size)`	Allocate without the pool
`isBuffer`	`Buffer.isBuffer(obj)`	Type guard
`isEncoding`	`Buffer.isEncoding(encoding)`	Encoding supported?
`byteLength`	`Buffer.byteLength(value, encoding?)`	Byte length of a string
`concat`	`Buffer.concat(list, totalLength?)`	Concatenate buffers
`compare`	`Buffer.compare(a, b)`	Sort-compatible compare

Instance Methods

toString, write, slice, equals, compare, copy, fill, indexOf, includes, toJSON, swap16, swap32, swap64. Typed read/write: readInt8, readUInt8, readInt16BE/LE, readUInt16BE/LE, readInt32BE/LE, readUInt32BE/LE, readFloatBE/LE, readDoubleBE/LE, readBigInt64BE/LE, readBigUInt64BE/LE, and the matching write* variants.

Supported Encodings

utf8, utf16le/ucs2, ascii, latin1/binary, base64, hex.

Example

const buf = Buffer.from('hello', 'utf8');
console.log(buf.length);              // 5
console.log(buf.toString('hex'));     // "68656c6c6f"
const merged = Buffer.concat([buf, Buffer.from(' world')]);

events

Event-driven programming via EventEmitter.

EventEmitter

Method	Description
`on(name, listener)` / `addListener`	Subscribe
`once(name, listener)`	Subscribe for a single fire
`prependListener` / `prependOnceListener`	Subscribe at the front of the queue
`off(name, listener)` / `removeListener`	Unsubscribe
`removeAllListeners(name?)`	Remove all listeners for an event (or everything)
`emit(name, ...args)`	Dispatch to listeners — returns `true` if any ran
`listenerCount(name)`	Number of subscribers
`eventNames()`	Names with at least one listener
`setMaxListeners(n)`	Warn threshold

Example

import { EventEmitter } from 'events';

const ee = new EventEmitter();
ee.on('tick', (n: number) => console.log(`tick ${n}`));
ee.emit('tick', 1);

stream

Node.js streaming primitives.

Exports

Classes: Readable, Writable, Duplex, Transform, PassThrough.

Helpers: pipeline(...streams, cb?), finished(stream, cb), addAbortSignal(signal, stream).

The submodule stream/promises exposes promise-returning pipeline and finished.

stream/web

WHATWG streams: ReadableStream, WritableStream, TransformStream, ByteLengthQueuingStrategy, CountQueuingStrategy.

Example

import { pipeline } from 'stream/promises';
import { createReadStream, createWriteStream } from 'fs';
import { createGzip } from 'zlib';

await pipeline(
  createReadStream('input.txt'),
  createGzip(),
  createWriteStream('input.txt.gz'),
);

http / https

HTTP client and server.

Methods

Method	Description
`createServer(requestListener?)`	Create an HTTP server
`request(options, callback?)`	Make an HTTP request
`get(options, callback?)`	`request` with method forced to `GET`

Constants / Objects

METHODS — array of supported HTTP method names
STATUS_CODES — { code: reason-phrase } map
Agent — connection pooling
globalAgent — default shared agent

https exposes the same API with TLS transport.

Example

import http from 'http';

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  res.end('Hello\n');
});
server.listen(3000);

net

TCP networking.

Symbol	Description
`createServer(options?, connectionListener?)`	New TCP server
`createConnection(options, callback?)` / `connect`	New TCP connection
`Server`	TCP server class
`Socket`	TCP socket class
`isIP(input)`	4, 6, or 0
`isIPv4` / `isIPv6`	Version-specific checks

Example

import net from 'net';

const server = net.createServer((socket) => {
  socket.write('hello\n');
  socket.end();
});
server.listen(7000);

tls

TLS/SSL sockets on top of net.

Symbol	Description
`createServer(options, connectionListener?)`	TLS server
`connect(options, callback?)`	Client connection
`createSecureContext(options)`	Reusable credential bundle
`Server`, `TLSSocket`	Classes
`DEFAULT_MIN_VERSION`, `DEFAULT_MAX_VERSION`	Default protocol bounds

Options accept key, cert, ca, host, port, minVersion, maxVersion.

dgram

UDP datagrams.

Symbol	Description
`createSocket(type, callback?)`	Create a socket (`'udp4'` or `'udp6'`)
`Socket`	Socket class — `bind`, `send`, `close`, EventEmitter interface

Example

import dgram from 'dgram';

const sock = dgram.createSocket('udp4');
sock.on('message', (msg, rinfo) => console.log(`from ${rinfo.address}: ${msg}`));
sock.bind(41234);

dns / dns/promises

DNS resolution.

resolve* vs lookup: resolve/resolve4/resolve6/resolveMx/… use the DNS wire protocol — like Node's c-ares resolver — querying the configured DNS server (override with the SHARPTS_DNS_SERVER env var). They do not consult the OS hosts file. lookup/lookupService use the OS resolver (getaddrinfo), which does read the hosts file. Consequently resolve4('localhost') typically returns ENOTFOUND, whereas lookup('localhost') returns 127.0.0.1 — matching Node.

Top-level Methods

lookup, lookupService, resolve, resolve4, resolve6, resolveCaa, resolveCname, resolveMx, resolveNs, resolvePtr, resolveSoa, resolveSrv, resolveTxt, resolveAny, reverse, getServers, setServers.

Resolver

Resolver class provides a private instance with its own servers: new Resolver(), resolver.resolve4(host, cb), resolver.setServers([...]), resolver.cancel().

Promise API

import { resolve4 } from 'dns/promises' — same surface, Promise-returning. Also available as dns.promises.

Error Codes

Exposed as named constants: NOTFOUND, SERVFAIL, REFUSED, TIMEOUT, NODATA, FORMERR, NOMEM, BADQUERY, BADNAME, BADFAMILY, BADRESP, CONNREFUSED, CANCELLED, and more.

zlib

Compression/decompression.

Sync

deflateSync, inflateSync, deflateRawSync, inflateRawSync, gzipSync, gunzipSync, unzipSync, brotliCompressSync, brotliDecompressSync.

Async (callback)

deflate, inflate, deflateRaw, inflateRaw, gzip, gunzip, unzip, brotliCompress, brotliDecompress.

Stream Factories

createDeflate, createInflate, createDeflateRaw, createInflateRaw, createGzip, createGunzip, createUnzip, createBrotliCompress, createBrotliDecompress, createZstdCompress, createZstdDecompress.

Example

import { gzipSync, gunzipSync } from 'zlib';

const compressed = gzipSync(Buffer.from('hello world'));
const original = gunzipSync(compressed).toString();

timers / timers/promises

Timer functions. Also available as globals.

Method	Description
`setTimeout(cb, ms, ...args)`	Run once after delay
`setInterval(cb, ms, ...args)`	Repeat every delay
`setImmediate(cb, ...args)`	Run on next tick
`clearTimeout(handle)` / `clearInterval` / `clearImmediate`	Cancel

timers/promises exposes setTimeout(ms, value?, options?) and setImmediate(value?, options?) returning a Promise, both accepting { signal } for cancellation via AbortController.

Example

import { setTimeout as delay } from 'timers/promises';

await delay(1000);
console.log('one second later');

vm

Compile and execute code in a custom context.

Method	Description
`createContext(contextObject?)`	Wrap an object as a sandbox
`isContext(obj)`	Test for a context object
`runInContext(code, context, options?)`	Run `code` in an existing context
`runInNewContext(code, contextObject?, options?)`	Create a context and run
`runInThisContext(code, options?)`	Run in the current context
`compileFunction(code, params?, options?)`	Compile to a callable function
`Script`	`new Script(code, options?)` with `.runInContext()` / `.runInNewContext()` / `.runInThisContext()`

Options include timeout for execution cap.

worker_threads

Thread-based workers.

Symbol	Description
`Worker`	Spawn a worker; `postMessage`, `terminate`, `on('message')`
`MessageChannel`, `BroadcastChannel`	Structured messaging primitives
`isMainThread`	`true` in the main thread
`parentPort`	Message port to parent (in workers)
`workerData`	Data passed at construction
`threadId`	Current thread ID
`resourceLimits`	Per-worker limits
`getEnvironmentData` / `setEnvironmentData`	Shared env map
`SHARE_ENV`	Sentinel to inherit environment
`markAsUntransferable` / `moveMessagePortToContext` / `receiveMessageOnPort`	Advanced port ops

cluster

Fork worker processes that share server ports.

Symbol	Description
`fork(env?)`	Create a worker
`disconnect(callback?)`	Gracefully disconnect all workers
`isPrimary` / `isMaster`	`true` in the primary/master process
`isWorker`	`true` in worker processes
`worker`	Current worker (when `isWorker`)
`workers`	`{ id: Worker }` map (primary)
`settings`	Active fork settings
`setupPrimary(settings?)` / `setupMaster`	Configure default fork settings

Extends EventEmitter (on, once, emit, off, removeAllListeners, listenerCount, listeners, eventNames).

async_hooks

Asynchronous context tracking.

AsyncLocalStorage

Method	Description
`run(store, callback, ...args)`	Execute within a store scope
`enterWith(store)`	Set store for the current async chain
`exit(callback, ...args)`	Run without any store
`getStore()`	Current store, or `undefined`
`disable()`	Drop all references

Example

import { AsyncLocalStorage } from 'async_hooks';

const als = new AsyncLocalStorage<{ requestId: string }>();

als.run({ requestId: 'abc' }, () => {
  // Any `getStore()` call in this (and descendant) async task sees { requestId: 'abc' }
  handleRequest();
});

perf_hooks

High-resolution performance timing.

performance

Member	Description
`now()`	Monotonic time in ms since `timeOrigin`
`timeOrigin`	Wall-clock anchor (ms since epoch)
`mark(name, options?)`	Record a named timestamp
`measure(name, startMark?, endMark?)`	Record a duration between marks
`getEntries()` / `getEntriesByName` / `getEntriesByType`	Query recorded entries
`clearMarks(name?)` / `clearMeasures(name?)`	Drop entries

PerformanceObserver

Subscribe to mark/measure events synchronously:

import { performance, PerformanceObserver } from 'perf_hooks';

const obs = new PerformanceObserver((list) => {
  for (const entry of list.getEntries()) console.log(entry.name, entry.duration);
});
obs.observe({ entryTypes: ['measure'] });

performance.mark('start');
// ... work ...
performance.mark('end');
performance.measure('work', 'start', 'end');

string_decoder

Incremental decoding of Buffer chunks to strings, preserving multi-byte sequences across writes.

StringDecoder

new StringDecoder(encoding?)  // default 'utf8'

Method	Description
`write(buffer)`	Decode chunk, buffering any trailing incomplete sequence
`end(buffer?)`	Flush any buffered bytes and return the final string

Example

import { StringDecoder } from 'string_decoder';

const decoder = new StringDecoder('utf8');
const a = decoder.write(Buffer.from([0xE2, 0x82]));       // "" — incomplete
const b = decoder.write(Buffer.from([0xAC]));             // "€"

tty

Terminal detection.

Method	Description
`isatty(fd)`	Is the file descriptor a TTY?

ReadStream / WriteStream classes are not currently implemented — use process.stdout.isTTY (a boolean) or tty.isatty(1) for the common case.

Notes

Error Handling

File system errors include Node.js-compatible error codes:

try {
  fs.readFileSync('nonexistent.txt');
} catch (e) {
  if (e.code === 'ENOENT') {
    console.log('File not found');
  }
}

Stream Objects

The process.stdin, process.stdout, and process.stderr properties are stream objects with standard stream methods.

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Node.js Built-in Modules API Guide

Import Syntax

assert

Methods

Example

AssertionError

child_process

Methods

execSync Options

spawnSync Options

spawnSync Return Value

Example

crypto

Methods

Supported Hash Algorithms

Hash Object Methods

Example

fs

File Operations (sync)

Directory Operations (sync)

File Information / Permissions (sync)

Callback-style Async

Stat Object Properties

rmdirSync Options

Example

Error Codes

os

Methods

Properties

Platform Values

Architecture Values

cpus() Return Value

userInfo() Return Value

Example

path

Methods

Properties

parse() Return Value

Example

process

Properties

Methods

Example

querystring

Methods

Example

readline

Methods

Interface Methods

Example

url

Classes

URL (WHATWG URL API)

URLSearchParams

Legacy Functions

Example

util

Methods

format() Placeholders

inspect() Options

types Object

Example

fs/promises

Example

buffer

Static Methods

Instance Methods

Supported Encodings

Example

events

EventEmitter

Example

stream

Exports