Read a file in Node.js

1).For ASync :

var fs = require('fs');
fs.readFile(process.cwd()+"\\text.txt", function(err,data)
            {
                if(err)
                    console.log(err)
                else
                    console.log(data.toString());
            });

2).For Sync :

var fs = require('fs');
var path = process.cwd();
var buffer = fs.readFileSync(path + "\\text.txt");
console.log(buffer.toString());

Use path.join(__dirname, '/start.html');

var fs = require('fs'),
    path = require('path'),    
    filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'start.html');

fs.readFile(filePath, {encoding: 'utf-8'}, function(err,data){
    if (!err) {
        console.log('received data: ' + data);
        response.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
        response.write(data);
        response.end();
    } else {
        console.log(err);
    }
});

Thanks to dc5.

With Node 0.12, it's possible to do this synchronously now:

var fs = require('fs');
var path = require('path');

// Buffer mydata
var BUFFER = bufferFile('../public/mydata.png');

function bufferFile(relPath) {
    return fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, relPath)); // zzzz....
}

fs is the file system. readFileSync() returns a Buffer, or string if you ask.

fs correctly assumes relative paths are a security issue. path is a work-around.

To load as a string, specify the encoding:

return fs.readFileSync(path,{ encoding: 'utf8' });