Need Help to access the nodejs in function node

Questions
1

Hello n8nians!

I was trying to get the access of the nodeJS built in module in the function node, i was specifically
trying to get the following one.

const fs = require('fs')

and the function node returns the error as : 
VMError: Cannot find module 'fs'
    at LegacyResolver.resolveFull (/usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/vm2/lib/resolver.js:110:9)
    at LegacyResolver.resolveFull (/usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/vm2/lib/resolver.js:316:16)
    at LegacyResolver.resolveFull (/usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/vm2/lib/resolver-compat.js:100:17)
    at LegacyResolver.resolve (/usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/vm2/lib/resolver.js:105:15)
    at VM2 Wrapper.apply (/usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/vm2/lib/bridge.js:485:11)
    at requireImpl (/usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/vm2/lib/setup-node-sandbox.js:84:28)
    at require (/usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/vm2/lib/setup-node-sandbox.js:165:10)
    at /usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base/dist/nodes/Function:40:10
    at /usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base/dist/nodes/Function:106:2
    at VM2 Wrapper.apply (/usr/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/vm2/lib/bridge.js:485:11)

   can i access nodejs built in module in function node?
   
   Thanks

## Information on your n8n setup
- **n8n version: 0.189.1 **
- **Database you're using (default: SQLite): sqlite**
- **Running n8n with the execution process [own(default), main]:**
- **Running n8n via [Docker, npm, n8n.cloud, desktop app]: npm**
2

Hey @msm,

Welcome to the community :tada:

Have you set NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_BUILTIN or NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL to include fs?

3

Hello Jon

Thanks for the reply.
I have set the NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_BUILTIN=fs as a system environment variables, and i am using ubuntu 20.04 as os.

4

Hey @msm,

Can you share the command you use to run n8n? I can give it a go and see if I can reproduce the same issue.

5

Hey Jon

I use the command n8n start to run n8n.

6

Hey @msm,

Did you run the export command just before that?

8

Thanks Jon

Now i can use the node module in the function node.

Best
msm

1 Like
9

what the export command and where @Jon

10

Hey @elsayed_mubarak,

Welcome to the community :raised_hands:

The export command lets you set an environment variable, You may not need this depending on how you have n8n running. The environment options that need to be set can be found in this thread already but for now I would recommend opening a new topic and completing the template.

For now I am going to mark this one as closed though as this is an old post.