NodeJS require a global module/package
As per documentation, Node.js will search in the following locations by default:
Path specified in the
NODE_PATH
environment variable.Note:
NODE_PATH
environment variable is set to a colon-delimited list of absolute paths.Current
node_modules
folder. (local)$HOME/.node_modules
(global)Note:
$HOME
is the user's home directory.$HOME/.node_libraries
(global)$PREFIX/lib/node
(global)Note:
$PREFIX
is Node.js's configurednode_prefix
.To check the current value of
node_prefix
, run:node -p process.config.variables.node_prefix
Note: Prefix corresponds to
--prefix
param during build and it's relative toprocess.execPath
. Not to confuse with value from thenpm config get prefix
command.source
If the given module can't be found, that means it is not present in one of the above locations.
Location of global root folder where modules are installed can be printed by: npm root -g
(by default the path is computed at run-time unless overridden in npmrc
file).
Solution
You can try the following workarounds:
Specify your global module location in
NODE_PATH
environment variable. E.g.echo 'require("forever")' | NODE_PATH="$(npm root -g):$NODE_PATH" node
To test and print the value of
NODE_PATH
, run:echo 'console.log(process.env.NODE_PATH); require("forever")' | NODE_PATH="$(npm root -g):$NODE_PATH" node
For more permanent solution, link your
$HOME/.node_modules
global user folder to point to the root folder, by running this command:ln -vs "$(npm root -g)" "$HOME"/.node_modules
Then re-test it via:
echo 'require("forever")' | node
command.Temporary change the current folder to where the extension has been installed globally, before invoking the script. E.g.
npm install -g forever cd "$(npm root -g)" echo 'require("forever")' | node cd -
Configure global installation destination in
npm
userconfig file (see:npm help 5 npmrc
) or byuserconfig
param (--prefix
).To display the current config, run:
npm config list
.To edit the current config, run:
npm config edit
.Specify the full path of node modules location when calling
require()
. E.g.require("/path/to/sub/module")
Install the package to custom location, e.g.
npm install forever -g --prefix "$HOME"/.node_modules
However, the installation will go under
~/.node_modules/lib/node_modules/
, so the location still needs to be added.See: npm local install package to custom location
Create a symlink in the current folder from the location of the global package. E.g.
npm link forever
Apologies for the necromancy but I'm able to specify hard-coded paths to globally installed modules:
var pg = require("/usr/local/lib/node_modules/pg");
This isn't perfect but considering that Unity3d tries to "compile" all javascript that is included in the project directory I really can't install any packages.
In Node.js, require doesn't look in the folder where global modules are installed.
You can fix this by setting the NODE_PATH environment variable. In Linux this will be:
export NODE_PATH=/usr/lib/node_modules
Note: This depend on where your global modules are actually installed.
See: Loading from the global folders.
After you install package globally you have to link the local project with global package
npm install express -g
cd ~/mynodeproject/
npm link express
See here