Q:

nodejs serving static files (path issue) (unable to go down dir "/../")

Short overview of the problem
I am in the routes.js file, how do I serve all the files in the css folder as static files?
path structure (someone edit this and make the img visible without use of link)

Some failed attempts
path.join(__dirname, '\\css') -> outputs -> \\app\\routes\\css
path.join(__dirname, '..\\css') -> outputs -> \\app\\routes\\css
path.join(__dirname, '..', 'css') -> outputs -> \\app\\routes\\css

The desired path is: \\app\\routes\\..\\css 
But for some reason the "/../" is ignored. See comments in routes.js

routes.js
var express = require("express");

var path = require('path');

var appRouter = function (app) {

  app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '\\css')));
   // RESULTS IN INVALID PATH: '\\app\\routes\\css'

   // (there is no css folder inside the routes folder) 

  app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.redirect('/home');
      });
};

module.exports = appRouter;

server.js
var express = require("express");
var bodyParser = require("body-parser");
var routes = require("./routes/routes.js");
var app = express();

const server_port = process.env.PORT || 3000;

app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

routes(app);

var server = app.listen(server_port);

Index.html
        // I have linked to the static css file
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/styles.css" />

Additional info
app.use(express.static('app')); works, however it serves all the files in the entire app folder, which is not desirable.

A:

Use 
path.join(__dirname, '/../css')
(You need to add a / before directory name)

