process

process is an ambient global object, available in every module without an import — just like console. It exposes synchronous access to the running process, backed by libc.

console.log("running in: " + process.cwd());
process.setEnv("GREETING", "hi");
console.log(process.getEnv("GREETING"));  // "hi"

Note

process is global because it is global in Node. Other modules like fs and os are imported, as they are in Node.

Environment

process.getEnv(name: string): string   // value, or "" if unset
process.hasEnv(name: string): boolean  // distinguishes "set but empty" from "unset"
process.setEnv(name: string, value: string): void

if (process.hasEnv("HOME")) {
  console.log(process.getEnv("HOME"));
}

Working directory

process.cwd(): string           // current working directory
process.chdir(path: string): boolean  // change directory; true on success

Command-line arguments & identity

process.argv(): string[]        // [program path, ...user args]
process.execPath(): string      // absolute path of the running executable
process.platform(): string      // "darwin" | "linux"
process.arch(): string          // "arm64" | "x64"

let args: string[] = process.argv();
let i: i32 = 1;                  // argv[0] is the program path
while (i < args.length) {
  console.log("arg: " + args[i]);
  i = i + 1;
}

Process control

process.pid(): i32              // this process's id
process.ppid(): i32             // parent process id
process.hrtime(): i64           // high-resolution time in nanoseconds
process.exit(code: i32): void   // terminate immediately with an exit code

process.hrtime() is a monotonic nanosecond counter; measure elapsed time by subtracting two readings.

if (!process.hasEnv("REQUIRED_TOKEN")) {
  console.error("REQUIRED_TOKEN is not set");
  process.exit(1);
}