Basic Streams

gistfile1.js

var fs = require('fs'),
    path = '/path/to/sql/file'; // This represents a 4-5 gb file, way too large for a buffer in memory

// Without Streams    
fs.readFile(path, 'utf8', function(err, data) { // This will fail because the  size is too large for BUffer creation
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(data);
});

// With Streams
fs.createReadStream(path).pipe(process.stdout); // Continuously reads the contents of the file to process stdout, minimally writes to memory