@mnrendra/stack-trace

A lightweight stack trace utility to retrieve CallSite objects from a specific caller.

Useful for debugging, logging, or building tools that need to trace call origins at runtime.

Features

• ✅ Supports both ES Modules and CommonJS from a single source - see package
• ✅ Minified and cleansed of unnecessary dependencies, files, and attributes - see contents
• ✅ Tiny package - see size
• ✅ Well tested - see coverage
• ✅ Security checked - see scorecard
• ✅ Verified all commits - see signatures
• ✅ Semantic versioning - see commits
• ✅ Actively maintained - pull requests, issues, discussions, and contributions are welcome!

Install

npm i @mnrendra/stack-trace

API Reference

stackTrace

Captures v8 stack trace from a specific caller.

Type

(callee?: ((...args: any) => any) | null, options?: Options) => NodeJS.CallSite[]

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
callee	((...args: any) => any) | null	Optional callee function to specify the caller. If undefined or null, tracing starts from the current caller.
options	Options	Optional options to affect the captured frames. By default, the limit option is set to Infinity to capture all frames. To capture only a specific number of frames, set the limit option to a positive number.

Return

NodeJS.CallSite[]

Array of CallSite objects representing the captured stack trace frames.

Options

Name	Type	Default	Description
limit	number	Infinity	Specifies the number of stack frames to be collected by a stack trace. The default value is Infinity, but may be set to any valid JavaScript number. Changes will affect any stack trace captured after the value has been changed. If set to a non-number value, or set to a negative number, stack traces will not capture any frames.

getCallerSite

Gets the caller's CallSite object captured from stackTrace.

Type

(callee?: ((...args: any) => any) | null) => NodeJS.CallSite

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
callee	((...args: any) => any) | null	Optional callee function to specify the caller. If undefined or null, tracing starts from the current caller.

Return

NodeJS.CallSite

First CallSite object captured in the stack trace.

extractFilePath

Extracts the file name from a CallSite object and converts it to a file path if the value is a file URL.
This utility ensures that the returned value is an absolute path.

Type

(callSite: NodeJS.CallSite) => string

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
callSite	NodeJS.CallSite	CallSite object captured from stackTrace.

Return

string

Absolute path of the file name extracted from a CallSite object.

Throws

If the extracted file name is not a string or not absolute.

getCallerFile

Gets the caller's file extracted from the result of getCallerSite and ensures it returns an absolute path using extractFilePath.

Type

(callee?: ((...args: any) => any) | null) => string

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
callee	((...args: any) => any) | null	Optional callee function to specify the caller. If undefined or null, tracing starts from the current caller.

Return

string

Absolute path of the caller's file.

Throws

If the extracted file name is not a string or not absolute.

getCallerDir

Gets the caller's directory extracted from the result of getCallerFile.

Type

(callee?: ((...args: any) => any) | null) => string

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
callee	((...args: any) => any) | null	Optional callee function to specify the caller. If undefined or null, tracing starts from the current caller.

Return

string

Absolute path of the caller's directory.

Throws

If the extracted file name is not a string or not absolute.

Usage

ES Modules

/foo/callee.mjs

import { dirname } from 'node:path'

import {
  stackTrace,
  getCallerSite,
  extractFilePath,
  getCallerFile,
  getCallerDir
} from '@mnrendra/stack-trace'

const callee = () => {
  // `stackTrace`:
  const [callSite1] = stackTrace()
  const [callSite2] = stackTrace(callee, { limit: 1 }) // Pass the `callee` function as the callee.

  console.log(callSite1.getFileName()) // Output: file:///foo/callee.mjs
  console.log(callSite2.getFileName()) // Output: file:///foo/caller.mjs

  console.log(callSite1.getFunctionName()) // Output: callee
  console.log(callSite2.getFunctionName()) // Output: caller

  // `getCallerSite`:
  const callerSite1 = getCallerSite()
  const callerSite2 = getCallerSite(callee) // Pass the `callee` function as the callee.

  console.log(callerSite1.getFileName() === callSite1.getFileName()) // Output: true
  console.log(callerSite2.getFileName() === callSite2.getFileName()) // Output: true

  console.log(callerSite1.getFileName()) // Output: file:///foo/callee.mjs
  console.log(callerSite2.getFileName()) // Output: file:///foo/caller.mjs

  console.log(callerSite1.getFunctionName() === callSite1.getFunctionName()) // Output: true
  console.log(callerSite2.getFunctionName() === callSite2.getFunctionName()) // Output: true

  console.log(callerSite1.getFunctionName()) // Output: callee
  console.log(callerSite2.getFunctionName()) // Output: caller

  // `extractFilePath`:
  const filePath1 = extractFilePath(callerSite1)
  const filePath2 = extractFilePath(callerSite2)

  console.log(filePath1) // Output: /foo/callee.mjs
  console.log(filePath2) // Output: /foo/caller.mjs

  // `getCallerFile`:
  const callerFile1 = getCallerFile()
  const callerFile2 = getCallerFile(callee) // Pass the `callee` function as the callee.

  console.log(callerFile1 === filePath1) // Output: true
  console.log(callerFile2 === filePath2) // Output: true

  console.log(callerFile1) // Output: /foo/callee.mjs
  console.log(callerFile2) // Output: /foo/caller.mjs

  // `getCallerDir`:
  const callerDir1 = getCallerDir()
  const callerDir2 = getCallerDir(callee) // Pass the `callee` function as the callee.

  console.log(callerDir1 === dirname(filePath1)) // Output: true
  console.log(callerDir2 === dirname(filePath2)) // Output: true

  console.log(callerDir1) // Output: /foo
  console.log(callerDir2) // Output: /foo
}

export default callee

/foo/caller.mjs

import callee from './callee.mjs'
const caller = () => callee()
caller()

CommonJS

/foo/callee.cjs

const { dirname } = require('node:path')

const {
  stackTrace,
  getCallerSite,
  extractFilePath,
  getCallerFile,
  getCallerDir
} = require('@mnrendra/stack-trace')

const callee = () => {
  // `stackTrace`:
  const [callSite1] = stackTrace()
  const [callSite2] = stackTrace(callee, { limit: 1 }) // Pass the `callee` function as the callee.

  console.log(callSite1.getFileName()) // Output: /foo/callee.cjs
  console.log(callSite2.getFileName()) // Output: /foo/caller.cjs

  console.log(callSite1.getFunctionName()) // Output: callee
  console.log(callSite2.getFunctionName()) // Output: caller

  // `getCallerSite`:
  const callerSite1 = getCallerSite()
  const callerSite2 = getCallerSite(callee) // Pass the `callee` function as the callee.

  console.log(callerSite1.getFileName() === callSite1.getFileName()) // Output: true
  console.log(callerSite2.getFileName() === callSite2.getFileName()) // Output: true

  console.log(callerSite1.getFileName()) // Output: /foo/callee.cjs
  console.log(callerSite2.getFileName()) // Output: /foo/caller.cjs

  console.log(callerSite1.getFunctionName() === callSite1.getFunctionName()) // Output: true
  console.log(callerSite2.getFunctionName() === callSite2.getFunctionName()) // Output: true

  console.log(callerSite1.getFunctionName()) // Output: callee
  console.log(callerSite2.getFunctionName()) // Output: caller

  // `extractFilePath`:
  const filePath1 = extractFilePath(callerSite1)
  const filePath2 = extractFilePath(callerSite2)

  console.log(filePath1) // Output: /foo/callee.cjs
  console.log(filePath2) // Output: /foo/caller.cjs

  // `getCallerFile`:
  const callerFile1 = getCallerFile()
  const callerFile2 = getCallerFile(callee) // Pass the `callee` function as the callee.

  console.log(callerFile1 === filePath1) // Output: true
  console.log(callerFile2 === filePath2) // Output: true

  console.log(callerFile1) // Output: /foo/callee.cjs
  console.log(callerFile2) // Output: /foo/caller.cjs

  // `getCallerDir`:
  const callerDir1 = getCallerDir()
  const callerDir2 = getCallerDir(callee) // Pass the `callee` function as the callee.

  console.log(callerDir1 === dirname(filePath1)) // Output: true
  console.log(callerDir2 === dirname(filePath2)) // Output: true

  console.log(callerDir1) // Output: /foo
  console.log(callerDir2) // Output: /foo
}

module.exports = callee

/foo/caller.cjs

const callee = require('./callee.cjs')
const caller = () => callee()
caller()

Note:

• In ES Modules, getFileName returns a file URL (e.g., file:///foo), instead of a file path (/foo).
  To convert it to a file path, use either url.fileURLToPath or the extractFilePath utility.

• By default stackTrace will capture all caller's frames.
  To capture only a specific number of frames, set the limit option to a positive number.

Examples

1. Call from a development project

/foo/project-name/src/index.mjs:

import { dirname } from 'node:path'
import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url'

import {
  stackTrace,
  getCallerSite,
  extractFilePath,
  getCallerFile,
  getCallerDir
} from '@mnrendra/stack-trace'

// `stackTrace`:
const caller1 = () => stackTrace()
const [callSite] = caller1()
const fileName = callSite.getFileName()
console.log(fileName) // Output: file:///foo/project-name/src/index.mjs
console.log(fileURLToPath(fileName)) // Output: /foo/project-name/src/index.mjs

// `getCallerSite`:
const caller2 = () => getCallerSite()
const callerSite = caller2()
const callerFileName = callerSite.getFileName()
console.log(callerFileName === fileName) // Output: true
console.log(callerFileName) // Output: file:///foo/project-name/src/index.mjs
console.log(fileURLToPath(callerFileName)) // Output: /foo/project-name/src/index.mjs

// `extractFilePath`:
const filePath = extractFilePath(callerSite)
console.log(filePath === fileURLToPath(callerFileName)) // Output: true
console.log(filePath) // Output: /foo/project-name/src/index.mjs

// `getCallerFile`:
const caller3 = () => getCallerFile()
const callerFile = caller3()
console.log(callerFile === filePath) // Output: true
console.log(callerFile) // Output: /foo/project-name/src/index.mjs

// `getCallerDir`:
const caller4 = () => getCallerDir()
const callerDir = caller4()
console.log(callerDir === dirname(filePath)) // Output: true
console.log(callerDir) // Output: /foo/project-name/src

2. Call from a production package

/foo/consumer/node_modules/module-name/dist/index.cjs:

"use strict";

const { dirname } = require("node:path");

const {
  stackTrace,
  getCallerSite,
  extractFilePath,
  getCallerFile,
  getCallerDir
} = require("@mnrendra/stack-trace");

// `stackTrace`:
const caller1 = () => stackTrace();
const [callSite] = caller1();
const fileName = callSite.getFileName();
console.log(fileName); // Output: /foo/consumer/node_modules/module-name/dist/index.cjs

// `getCallerSite`:
const caller2 = () => getCallerSite();
const callerSite = caller2();
const callerFileName = callerSite.getFileName();
console.log(callerFileName === fileName); // Output: true
console.log(callerFileName); // Output: /foo/consumer/node_modules/module-name/dist/index.cjs

// `extractFilePath`:
const filePath = extractFilePath(callerSite);
console.log(filePath === callerFileName); // Output: true
console.log(filePath); // Output: /foo/consumer/node_modules/module-name/dist/index.cjs

// `getCallerFile`:
const caller3 = () => getCallerFile()
const callerFile = caller3()
console.log(callerFile === filePath) // Output: true
console.log(callerFile) // Output: /foo/consumer/node_modules/module-name/dist/index.cjs

// `getCallerDir`:
const caller4 = () => getCallerDir();
const callerDir = caller4();
console.log(callerDir === dirname(filePath)); // Output: true
console.log(callerDir); // Output: /foo/consumer/node_modules/module-name/dist

Types

Options

stackTrace's options interface.

import {
  type Options,
  stackTrace
} from '@mnrendra/stack-trace'

const options: Options = {
  limit: 1
}

const caller = (): NodeJS.CallSite[] => stackTrace(caller, options)
const callSites = caller()
console.log(callSites.length) // Output: 1

Security

We take security seriously in this project. If you discover a vulnerability, we strongly encourage you to report it in a responsible manner.

Please open a Security Advisory to report any vulnerabilities.

For more information, please refer to our Security Policy.

Contributing

We appreciate your help in making this project better. Please follow the guidelines to ensure that your contributions are smoothly integrated.

License

MIT

Author

@mnrendra