Retrieve command-line arguments

If you run node index.js arg1 arg2, you can retrieve these incoming command line arguments using

var arg1 = process.argv[2],
arg2 = process.argv[3];

The list of commands executed is accessible from the process global object.

argv stands for arguments vector and is an array. It contains node and index.js (or your entry file path equivalent) as its first two values.

Retrieve node-specific command line options

If you run node --harmony index.js arg1, the --harmony flag will no be included in process.argv

If you wish to retrieve it, use process.execArgv. The execArgv array will not include the values already included in process.argv.

So based on the above command:

process.execArgv will be equal to

['--harmony']

and process.argv will be equal to

['node', '/Users/username/test.js', 'arg1']