Three Hidden but Very Useful Features of Node.js

Photo by Ferenc Almasi on Unsplash

In day-to-day Node.js development, we often encounter problems that require frequent service restarts, manual loading of environment variables, and a desire to output more intuitively. These problems are small, but they have a huge impact on development efficiency and experience.

The article I shared today can solve the above problems very well, let’s take a look at three hidden but very useful features of the Node.js to make our development process more smooth and efficient.

1. Code changes are automatically reloaded

Node.js has added an experimental feature since the fall of 2022 that allows Node.js to automatically restart code when a filesystem change is detected via the --watch command-line flag. This eliminates the need for me to use an external tool like nodemon to monitor file changes. For example, run the following command:

node --watch watch1.js

The content of the watch1.js is very simple:

console.log('Watch me!', new Date());

When the script is run, if the script is modified, Node.js will automatically restart the script and clear the entire terminal screen with a useful restart and completion message.