How do I import global modules in Node I get Error Cannot find module module

Question

I am trying to setup Node on Mac OSX Lion  It all seems to work ok  but I can t seem to import anything modules from my global modules folder  I get the error   Error  Cannot find module  lt module gt    If I run this  node -e require paths  the response I get is        usr local lib node modules       Users Me  node modules       Users Me  node libraries       usr local Cellar node 0 4 12 lib node      Which is correct  my modules are indeed installed in  usr local lib node modules  When I try and run a script  however  I am getting this   Error  Cannot find module  socket io      at Function  resolveFilename  module js 326 11      at Function  load  module js 271 25      at require  module js 355 19      at Object  lt anonymous gt    Users Me node server js 2 10      at Module  compile  module js 411 26      at Object  js  module js 417 10      at Module load  module js 343 31      at Function  load  module js 302 12      at Array  lt anonymous gt   module js 430 10      at EventEmitter  tickCallback  node js 126 26    My  bash profile looks like this   export PATH  usr local mysql bin  PATH export NODE PATH  usr local lib node modules export DYLD LIBRARY PATH   DYLD LIBRARY PATH  usr local mysql lib     Would really appreciate some help  I have no idea why I can t import any libraries

User · Answer

You can use require with the path to the global module directory as an argument.

require('/path/to/global/node_modules/the_module');

On my mac, I use this:

require('/usr/local/lib/node_modules/the_module');

How to find where your global modules are? --> Where does npm install packages?

User · Answer

Setting the environment variable NODE PATH to point to your global node modules folder    In Windows 7 or higher the path is something like  AppData  npm node modules while in UNIX could be something like  home sg  npm global lib node modules  but it depends on user configuration    The command npm config get prefix could help finding out which is the correct path    In UNIX systems you can accomplish it with the following command    export NODE PATH  npm config get prefix  lib node modules

User · Answer

Node js uses the environmental variable NODE PATH to allow for specifying additional directories to include in the module search path   You can use npm itself to tell you where global modules are stored with the npm root -g command   So putting those two together  you can make sure global modules are included in your search path with the following command  on Linux-ish   export NODE PATH   npm root --quiet -g

User · Answer

Install any package globally as below     npm install -g replace     replace is one of the node module    As this replace module is installed globally so if you see your node modules folder you would not see replace module there and so you can not use this package using require  replace     because with require you can use only local modules which are present in your node module folder   Now to use global module you should link it with node module path using below command     npm link replace   Now go back and see your node module folder you could now be able to see replace module there and can use it with require  replace   in your application as it is linked with your local node module   Pls let me know if any further clarification is needed

User · Answer

I am using Docker  I am trying to create a docker image that has all of my node dependencies installed  but can use my local app directory at container run time  without polluting it with a node modules directory or link    This causes problems in this scenario   My workaround is to require from the exact path where the module  e g  require   usr local lib node modules socket io

User · Answer

require paths is deprecated   Go to your project folder and type  npm install socket io   that should install it in the local   node modules folder where node will look for it   I keep my things like this   cd   Sites  mkdir sweetnodeproject cd sweetnodeproject npm install socket io   Create an app js file     app js var socket   require  socket io     now run my app      node app js   Make sure you re using npm  gt   1 0 and node  gt   4 0

User · Answer

You can use npm link to create a symbolic link to your global package in your projects folder   Example     npm install -g express   cd  local path  project   npm link express   All it does is create a local node modules folder and then create a symlink express -   global directory  node modules express which can then be resolved by require  express

User · Answer

If you re using npm   1 0  you can use npm link  lt global-package gt  to create a local link to a package already installed globally   Caveat  The OS must support symlinks      However  this doesn t come without its problems      npm link is a development tool  It s awesome for managing packages on your local development box  But deploying with npm link is basically asking for problems  since it makes it super easy to update things without realizing it    As an alternative  you can install the packages locally as well as globally   For additional information  see   https   nodejs org en blog npm npm-1-0-link    https   nodejs org en blog npm npm-1-0-global-vs-local-installation

[node.js] How do I import global modules in Node? I get "Error: Cannot find module <module>"?

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