Can I include a folder relative to the current directory in PATH in Powershell? - node.js

Question

I run a lot of node projects and often have binaries located in:
.\node_modules\.bin
...relative to the projects folder. I'd like to be able to have PATH always include these directories, if they exist. I don't want to include other directories, just the one relative to the current directory. I'm familiar with
Add-PathVariable from PSCX and other Powershell basics, but how do I include a folder relative to the current dir in PATH?
Edit: as mentioned in the question, already, I expect the path to stay updated as the directory changes. This is not simply asking about how to use pwd.

Answer 1

You can use a relative path in Env:PATH and the binaries found will update dynamically:
Eg:
$env:PATH += ';.\node_modules\.bin'
Or with the PowerShell Community Extensions (PSCX):
Add-PathVariable '.\node_modules\.bin'
Unlike using $(pwd) the . is not immediately resolved to an absolute path, so PATH is always relative to the current working directory.
Testing this:
$ which uuid
C:\Users\username\Documents\myapp\node_modules\.bin\uuid.cmd
Then changing directory, uuid now refers to a program in a different dir:
$ cd ..\blog\
$ which uuid
C:\Users\username\Documents\blog\node_modules\.bin\uuid.cmd
It's also possible to persistently change PATH in the user or system environment:
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(($env:PATH + ';.'), 'User')
or
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(($env:PATH + ';.'), 'Machine')
Security note: when entering a command Windows will automatically search all directories in $env:PATH for files with one of the extensions listed in $env:PATHEXT and execute the first match it finds. Depending on where exactly in the search path you placed . that may even supersede system executables.
You may want to take a look at how to use package installed locally in node_modules for alternative approaches.