I'm developing a CLI module that can be installed either locally or globally. It references local templates to be used during the CLI process (e.g. copy some of them in the current folder, ...).
How can I retrieve the path where those templates are installed (in the current node_modules folder or in the global npm/yarn node_modules folder) to use them?
So the scenario is that a user installs your tool via npm install, and then that tool copy some templates -- from your project folder -- into the user current working directory (among other things).
So your template files may be installed in a local node_modules installation or in the global one.
In both cases, you can access the absolute path to a resource given a relative path from your script file, via the path module:
const pathToResource = path.resolve('../templates/myTemplate.txt');
pathToResource will be the absolute path and will change from some users to others, depending upon they installed the module locally or globally.
I don't know if it's the best solution but I manage to retrieve the binary path by doing : path.resolve(require.resolve('my-cli'), '../', 'templates')
Source: https://github.com/nodejs/help/issues/388#issuecomment-264731257
Related
I know I can install Node.js libraries with the command npm from the command line... So, if I type:
npm install mylibrary
It'll create a node_modules folder on my current location and it'll install mylibrary (if it exists on npm)... Let's say that I create a Node.js code using it as the following:
const mylibrary = require('mylibrary')
mylibrary.doSomething()
Since I've installed this library on my current folder with the last command, this node.js script will work only if I save it on a file on my terminal current location as well. If I name this file as file.js, I can execute it with:
node file.js
Well, my problem is that I have a very specific case where the node_modules folder cannot exist in the same location that my file.js. Also, I'd like to avoid having to install mylibrary globally. Is there any way of defining as a parameter the path that the command node will search for the node_modules folder? I've checked node --help and it seems there's a lot of options, but I didn't manage to make it work. Is it possible to do? Can I use a node_modules folder that's neither the one of my file.js path or a global installed library?
You can have a link for the node_modules folder. For example, to create the symbolink link in Linux do this:
cd /path/to/script/folder
ln -s /path/to/where/you/can/have/node_modules node_modules
If you can't have the link, use the full path to the node_modules folder in the require, for example:
const mylibrary = require('/path/to/node_modules/mylibrary')
Also, you can solve the problem by using the NODE_PATH environment variable, set it like this
export NODE_PATH=/path/to/node_modules
I am making a npm package which, after installation, runs a postinstall script located in the lib/ directory. This postinstall script in turn copies a config file, located in the same directory (as the module), to the user's project's root using fs.copyFile function. But I am a little confused about how the two paths are referenced when from inside the node_modules directory.
So, long talk made short, I want to figure out what prefixes should I use to refer to files in MY module and for the user's project's directory. Basically, how are relative paths resolved by node when referenced from a script inside the node_modules directory?
I am creating my own CLI using NodeJS. One task of the CLI is to copy folders recursively from a source folder within the project.
So, I install my CLI globally using npm install -g from within my CLI project folder.
Now I can run it in another test folder.
However, when I run it, the recursive copy fails because it is trying to find the files from the source folder in the test folder I created. Not from /usr/local/lib/node_modules/[myCli].
I have tried many solutions using path and require.resolve and __filename but they all give me a folder starting from the test folder in which I am executing my CLI.
Other then hardcoding the source path to /usr/local/lib...., there most be a way to get the folder of the globally executed script?
If you search for the current working directory its process.cwd() https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#process_process_cwd
__filename give you only path of file where it installed in node_modules
To find your project files you can use rc file in your home directory containing the path of your project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_commands
in hope this helps
I have a project setup that is as follows:
workspace
└cache
└node_modules
└gulp (and gulp-plugins, express etc.)
└nodejs
└node.exe
└project1
└gulpfile.js
└project2
└gulpfile.js
Now I want to execute the gulpfile in the project directories:
set NODE_PATH='C:\workspace\cache\node_modules\'
cd C:\workspace\project1\
C:\workspace\nodejs\node.exe C:\workspace\cache\node_modules\gulp\bin\gulp.js watch
and I get the following output:
[12:06:04] Local gulp not found in C:\workspace\project1
[12:06:04] Try running: npm install gulp
In both project folders the gulpfile is similar and uses a similar set of plugins. I'd really like to have the dependencies only once (because potentially I have up to 25 projects sharing the same node_modules).
Is this setup possible, or does the seperate project directories need to have their own node_modules folders?
Gulp requires you to have both a global installation as well as a local one. So you need to have your Gulp relatively to your Gulpfile. If your package.json would be located in workspace and your node_modules would be in workspace/node_modules everything would work fine because of Node's search tree, but if you can't move them, the only way to make it work is to "fake" the node_modules folder.
You can do this by creating a symbolic link.
Here's on Unix/Linux/Mac:
ln -s ../cache/node_modules node_modules
Here's on Windows
mklink /D node_modules ../cache/node_modules
(the latter one might work different, I'm not on a Win machine)
You could also try pkglink
From description:
Space saving Node.js package hard linker. pkglink locates common JavaScript/Node.js packages from your node_modules directories and hard links the package files so they share disk space.
Edit: ddprt
On Windows
mklink /D node_modules "C:/fullPATH/cache/node_modules"
you could always use the '-g' parameter with npm install 'package-name', so as to make the module available globally to access across different projects.
See the following links
what does the "-g" flag do in the command "npm install -g <something>"?
How do I install a module globally using npm?
https://docs.npmjs.com/files/folders
Packages are dropped into the node_modules folder under the prefix. When installing locally, this means that you can require("packagename") to load its main module, or require("packagename/lib/path/to/sub/module") to load other modules.
Global installs on Unix systems go to {prefix}/lib/node_modules.
Global installs on Windows go to {prefix}/node_modules (that is, no
lib folder.)
Scoped packages are installed the same way, except they are grouped
together in a sub-folder of the relevant node_modules folder with the
name of that scope prefix by the # symbol, e.g. npm install
#myorg/package would place the package in
{prefix}/node_modules/#myorg/package.
I have a server.js file that I downloaded from someone's website. The first line is: var express=require('express');
When I try to run this server with "node server.js" I get the following error: "Cannot find module 'express'." The express module is installed in the default node install location:
C:\Users\myname\node_modules\express\
I'm able to successfully run express by executing "node express.js" from the express install location in node_modules. I also tried copying over the express folder and file into my c:\node-testing\ directory where my server.js file is located but I still get the error. Any idea what the problem might be and how to fix?
You can set the NODE_PATH environment variable to tell nodejs to search other paths for globally installed modules that are not in the project directory.
See http://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules_loading_from_the_global_folders for details.
On Unix installations there are some built-in default locations, but on Windows, it appears you have to set this environment variable manually to support a global location.
FYI, if you want require to load a module from the project directory, then you have to use
require("./filename");
with the ./ in front of it. That's why it didn't work when you copied it to the project directory. node makes a distinction between loading from the project directory vs. loading from the node_modules directory below and thus requires a different syntax to specify which one you want. Express.js is also not a stand-alone module because it depends on a bunch of other modules so you could not copy only it. I'd recommend using the NODE_PATH option or install express into your project directory (it will end up in a node_modules sub-directory).
Node.js will only search for modules in from the current (and parent) directories. Unlike npm, Node has no concept of "global" modules.
You need to run npm install to install your modules into the directory containing your code.