Concise HTTP server

Here's my code for a consise node.js HTTP server.
It does work as intended, but I'd like to ask if there's any glitch or to be improved.

```
var httpServer = function(dir)
{
var component = require('http')
.createServer(function(req, res)
{
var fs = require('fs');
var path = require("path");
var url = require('url');

var mimeTypes = {
"html": "text/html",
"jpeg": "image/jpeg",
"jpg": "image/jpeg",
"png": "image/png",
"js": "text/javascript",
"css": "text/css"
};

var uri = url.parse(req.url)
.pathname;
var filename = path.join(dir, unescape(uri));
var indexFilename = path.join(dir, unescape('index.html'));
var stats;

console.log(filename);

try
{
stats = fs.lstatSync(filename); // throws if path doesn't exist
}
catch (e)
{
res.writeHead(404,
{
'Content-Type': 'text/plain'
});
res.write('404 Not Found\n');
res.end();
return;
}

if (stats.isFile())
{
// path exists, is a file
var mimeType = mimeTypes[path.extname(filename)
.split(".")[1]];
res.writeHead(200,
{
'Content-Type': mimeType
});

var fileStream =
fs.createReadStream(filename)
.pipe(res);
}
else if (stats.isDirectory())
{
// path exists, is a directory
res.writeHead(200,
{
'Content-Type': "text/html"
});
var fileStream =
fs.createReadStream(indexFilename)
.pipe(res);
}
else
{
// Symbolic link, other?
// TODO: follow s

You should move all require(...) calls to the very beginning of your code, instead of running require on each place locally.

In its current form, you won't see require errors until your server runs and receives its first requests. This is unfortunate. You usually want a program to fail as early as possible if it clearly won't work.


Rule of Repair (TAOUP): Repair what you can — but when you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as possible.

StackExchange Code Review Q#78857, answer score: 3