Deploying complex node.js project with elastic beanstalk - node.js

Question

I wonder what is the best practice of deploying complex node.js with elastic beanstalk without relying on availability of external npm repository (and dealing with credentials and high availability of privately managed git repositories for internally developed packages).
It looks like there one school of thought which preaches to actually check in node_modules into the source tree for projects that are actually being deployed.
source 1: http://www.futurealoof.com/posts/nodemodules-in-git.html
source 2: http://eng.yammer.com/managing-node-js-dependencies-and-deployments-at-yammer/
So sounds like checking them in is the right approach, but then there is a problem of different binary formats for some compiled packages (developing on mac and deploying to linux)
I've tried doing as yammer guys suggested (checkin modules except the bin folders), but even then local "npm rebuild" command fails (it tries to chmod something in a bin folder that doesn't exist in express.js module) so I haven't even gotten to try to see what beanstalk default deployment environment will do with such a repository. I assume it runs "npm install" (which will do nothing), but will it run "npm rebuild"?
So, again, what is the best practice to deploy a a complex project with multiple dependencies? It must be a solved problem by now in the node/beanstalk world, isn't it?
Thanks

Answer 1

Here's my configuration that does what you're talking about. Save it in the .ebextensions folder and you'll be set. The only difference between mine and the superior answer in https://stackoverflow.com/a/23242623/34340 is the NPM_CONFIG_UNSAFE_PERM=true line, which I learned from https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?messageID=534612
packages:
yum:
git: []
gcc: []
make: []
openssl-devel: []
libxml2: []
libxml2-devel: []
files:
"/opt/elasticbeanstalk/env.vars" :
mode: "000775"
owner: root
group: users
content: |
export HOME=/home/ec2-user # ADDED EXPORT COMMAND
export NPM_CONFIG_LOGLEVEL=error
export NPM_CONFIG_UNSAFE_PERM=true
export NODE_PATH=`ls -td /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/node-* | head -1`/bin
"/opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/appdeploy/pre/50npm.sh" :
mode: "000775"
owner: root
group: users
content: |
#!/bin/bash
. /opt/elasticbeanstalk/env.vars
function error_exit
{
eventHelper.py --msg "$1" --severity ERROR
exit $2
}
#install not-installed yet app node_modules
if [ ! -d "/var/node_modules" ]; then
mkdir /var/node_modules ;
fi
if [ -d /tmp/deployment/application ]; then
ln -s /var/node_modules /tmp/deployment/application/
fi
OUT=$([ -d "/tmp/deployment/application" ] && cd /tmp/deployment/application && $NODE_PATH/npm install 2>&1) || error_exit "Failed to run npm install. $OUT" $?
echo $OUT
"/opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/configdeploy/pre/50npm.sh" :
mode: "000666"
owner: root
group: users
content: |
#no need to run npm install during configdeploy