I'm developing a Node application with several modules. My node-application is transpiled with Babel to /dist/app.

This is an example-structure

.
|- main
|   |- config.js
|   |- factories
|   |     |- example.js

This is config.js:

const ex = require("/main/factories/example");

I launch config.js with node dist/app/main/config.js. The resulting error is:

Error: Cannot find module '/main/factories/example";

However when using const ex = require("./factories/example"); it works as it should.

This problem only occurs on Windows (testing Windows 8.1), both OS X and Linux are fine.

What is the problem here?

I'm developing a Node application with several modules. My node-application is transpiled with Babel to /dist/app.

This is an example-structure

.
|- main
|   |- config.js
|   |- factories
|   |     |- example.js

This is config.js:

const ex = require("/main/factories/example");

I launch config.js with node dist/app/main/config.js. The resulting error is:

Error: Cannot find module '/main/factories/example";

However when using const ex = require("./factories/example"); it works as it should.

This problem only occurs on Windows (testing Windows 8.1), both OS X and Linux are fine.

What is the problem here?

• javascript
• node.js

Share Improve this question Follow edited Jan 28, 2016 at 12:44 Hedge asked Jan 28, 2016 at 11:31 HedgeHedge 16.8k4545 gold badges154154 silver badges261261 bronze badges 3

• Could you flesh out the code sample a bit? What we can see so far doesn't actually call require. – N3dst4 Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 12:08
• I only forgot the require – Hedge Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 12:44
• It's the other way around, the code works as expected on Windows. – Shanoor Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 14:02

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2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 4

It's the other way around, the code works as expected on Windows. /main/factories/example means C:/main/factories/example on Windows. It works on OSX/Linux because of some reason (NODE_PATH being set probably). I'd suggest to not rely on a side effect to have a working code and don't use relative path either (entirely dependant on the working directory), you should build your absolute path like this:

const ex = require(__dirname + "/factories/example");

I think maybe the NODE_PATH cause this your issue. Refer to this article Better local require() paths for Node.js. There are several ways to require local node modules

• The Symlink.

  Create a symlink under node_modules to your app directory:

  • Linux: ln -nsf node_modules app
  • Windows: mklink /D app node_modules

• The Module

  Install some module:

  npm install app-module-path --save

  In your app.js, before any require() calls:

  require('app-module-path').addPath(__dirname + '/app');

  In your very/far/away/module.js:

  var Article = require('models/article');

• The startup script

  Linux, create app.sh in your project root:

   #!/bin/sh
   NODE_PATH=. node app.js
  

  Windows, create app.bat in your project root:

   @echo off
   cmd.exe /C "set NODE_PATH=.&& node app.js"
  

Hope it could help you.