Welcome to the official API reference documentation for Node.js!
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on the V8 JavaScript engine.
Report errors in this documentation in the issue tracker. See\nthe contributing guide for directions on how to submit pull requests.
Throughout the documentation are indications of a section's stability. Some APIs\nare so proven and so relied upon that they are unlikely to ever change at all.\nOthers are brand new and experimental, or known to be hazardous.
The stability indices are as follows:
\nStability: 0 - Deprecated. The feature may emit warnings. Backward\ncompatibility is not guaranteed.\n
Stability: 0 - Deprecated. The feature may emit warnings. Backward\ncompatibility is not guaranteed.
\nStability: 1 - Experimental. The feature is not subject to\nsemantic versioning rules. Non-backward compatible changes or removal may\noccur in any future release. Use of the feature is not recommended in\nproduction environments.\n
Stability: 1 - Experimental. The feature is not subject to\nsemantic versioning rules. Non-backward compatible changes or removal may\noccur in any future release. Use of the feature is not recommended in\nproduction environments.
\nStability: 2 - Stable. Compatibility with the npm ecosystem is a high\npriority.\n
Stability: 2 - Stable. Compatibility with the npm ecosystem is a high\npriority.
\nStability: 3 - Legacy. Although this feature is unlikely to be removed and is\nstill covered by semantic versioning guarantees, it is no longer actively\nmaintained, and other alternatives are available.\n
Stability: 3 - Legacy. Although this feature is unlikely to be removed and is\nstill covered by semantic versioning guarantees, it is no longer actively\nmaintained, and other alternatives are available.
Features are marked as legacy rather than being deprecated if their use does no\nharm, and they are widely relied upon within the npm ecosystem. Bugs found in\nlegacy features are unlikely to be fixed.
Use caution when making use of Experimental features, particularly within\nmodules. Users may not be aware that experimental features are being used.\nBugs or behavior changes may surprise users when Experimental API\nmodifications occur. To avoid surprises, use of an Experimental feature may need\na command-line flag. Experimental features may also emit a warning.
Every .html document has a corresponding .json document. This is for IDEs\nand other utilities that consume the documentation.
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.json
Node.js functions which wrap a system call will document that. The docs link\nto the corresponding man pages which describe how the system call works.
Most Unix system calls have Windows analogues. Still, behavior differences may\nbe unavoidable.