app.use-Middleware-2.md

Meaning of the basic express line - app.use('/', express.static(__dirname + '/public'))

1> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34174133/why-does-omitting-the-line-app-useexpress-static-dirname-public-stop-my

app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

app.use() loads a function to be used as middleware. In this context, it loads the result of

express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')).

express.static() is a function that takes a path, and returns a middleware that serves all files in that path to / .

(If you wanted to prefix it with /public or whatever, you'd write

app.use('/public', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')))

where the first /public is the web path (URL) and the second is the filesystem path of the files being served).

2> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18905872/expressjs-where-express-static-dirname-point-to

The method app.use() is a function inherited from the Connect framework, which is the framework Express is written on. The method attaches a middleware function to the application stack, which runs every time Express receives a request.

The code you showed mounts a static server to the path / that reads from the directory the script is executing from:

app.use('/', express.static(__dirname));

If you were to change the path to /path, then the static file server will serve static files from that path instead. If you specify no path, then / is used by default.