fs.createReadStream getting a different path than what's being passed in - node.js

Question

I'm using NodeJS on a VM. One part of it serves up pages, and another part is an API. I've run into a problem, where fs.createReadStream attempts to access a different path than what is being passed into the function. I made a small test server to see if it was something else in the server affecting path usage, for whatever reason, but it's happening on my test server as well. First, here's the code:
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const csv = require('csv-parser');
const readCSV = (filename) => {
console.log('READ CSV GOT ' + filename); // show me what you got
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const arr = [];
fs.createReadStream(filename)
.pipe(csv())
.on('data', row => {
arr.push(row);
})
.on('error', err => {
console.log(err);
})
.on('end', () => {
resolve(arr);
});
}
}
// tried this:
// const dir = path.relative(
// path.join('path', 'to', 'this', 'file),
// path.join('path', 'to', 'CONTENT.csv')
// );
// tried a literal relative path:
// const dir = '../data/CONTENT.csv';
// tried a literal absolute path:
// const dir = '/repo/directory/server/data/CONTENT.csv';
// tried an absolute path:
const dir = path.join(__dirname, 'data', 'CONTENT.csv');
const content = readCSV(dir)
.then(result => {console.log(result[0]);})
.catch(err => {console.log(err);});
...but any way I slice it, I get the following output:
READCSV GOT /repo/directory/server/data/CONTENT.csv
throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
^
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/repo/directory/data/CONTENT.csv'
i.e., is fs.createReadStream somehow stripping out the directory of the server, for some reason? I suppose I could hard code the directory into the call to createReadStream, maybe? I just want to know why this is happening.
Some extra: I'm stuck on node v8.11, can't go any higher. On the server itself, I believe I'm using older function(param) {...} instead of arrow functions -- but the behavior is exactly the same.
Please help!!

Answer 1

Code is perfect working.
I think you file CONTENT.csv should be in data folder like "/repo/directory/data/CONTENT.csv".

Answer 2

I'm answering my own question, because I found an answer, I'm not entirely sure why it's working, and at least it's interesting. To the best of my estimation, it's got something to do with the call stack, and where NodeJS identifies as the origin of the function call. I've got my server set up in an MVC pattern so my main app.js is in the root dir, and the function that's being called is in /controllers folder, and I've been trying to do relative paths from that folder -- I'm still not sure why absolute paths didn't work.
The call stack goes:
app.js:
app.use('/somepath', endpointRouter);
...then in endpointRouter.js:
router.get('/request/file', endpointController.getFile);
...then finally in endpointController.js:
const readCSV = filename => {
//the code I shared
}
exports.getFile = (req, res, next) => {
// code that calls readCSV(filename)
}
...and I believe that because Node views the chain as originating from app.js, it then treats all relative paths as relative to app.js, in my root folder. Basically when I switched to the super unintuitive single-dot-relative path: './data/CONTENT.csv', it worked with no issue.