export ES6 class in Node 4.x Unexpected reserved word

Question

I have the following in a Node scripts:

"use strict";

class Whatever {
    constructor() {
        console.log("I'm in the constructor!");
    }
}

export default Whatever;

I get Unexpected reserved word regarding export .

What am I missing here? How do you specify a class definition in an external file and include/require it?

Answer 1

Node.js doesn't support ES6 modules by default. You would need to activate them with the --harmony or --harmony_modules flag. Default ist the CommonJS declaration ( require / module.exports ) .

Modify your code to support the CommonJS syntax:

"use strict";

class Whatever {
    constructor() {
        console.log("I'm in the constructor!");
    }
}

module.exports = Whatever;

Answer 2

ES6 modules aren't stable in Node yet, but you can use --harmony_modules to enable them. This obviously is not recommended in a production environment.

ES6 support in Node 4.x