By Vishal Basumatary in javascript — Mar 24, 2023

TypeError: path must be absolute or specify root to res.sendFile

If you have encountered this error while working with Node.js, it means that the 'path' argument that you have passed to res.sendFile() method is not a valid absolute path.

This error is usually caused when you are trying to send a file using res.sendFile() method, but the path that you have provided is not correct or incomplete.

What is an Absolute Path?

An absolute path is a complete path that starts from the root directory of the file system. It includes all the directories and subdirectories that are required to locate a file or directory.

For example, if you are working on a Linux system, an absolute path will start with a forward slash (/), followed by the directories and subdirectories.


res.sendFile('/home/user/Documents/index.html');

In the above code, '/home/user/Documents/index.html' is an absolute path.

How to Fix the Error?

To fix this error, you need to provide a valid absolute path to the res.sendFile() method. You can do this in two ways:

Use the __dirname Variable: __dirname is a global variable that represents the directory name of the current module. You can use this variable to create an absolute path to a file.


res.sendFile(__dirname + '/index.html');

Use the Path Module: Node.js provides a built-in module called 'path' that can be used to manipulate file paths. You can use this module to create an absolute path to a file.


const path = require('path');
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'public', 'index.html'));