Import module from global NPM packages if it cannot find module in local package

[trymeouteh]

To have the ability to install packages globally and to be able to import them into your scripts.

If the module cannot be found in the local package (node_modules directory), then it will see if it can be found in the global packages.

For example, if Ramda was installed as a global package...

npm i -g ramda

And then a script that can use Ramda from the global packages...

#!/usr/bin/node

import * as R from 'ramda';

console.log(R.add(5, 7));

A use case for this is using NodeJS as an alternative language to shell languages like Bash or Powershell or even Python to do system tasks but to have the ability to install and access modules globally instead of having a script in your Documents directory and having to also have a ~/Documents/node_modules/ directory just to be able to use a 3rd party package in your simple script.

[RedYetiDev]

@nodejs/loaders @nodejs/npm

[wraithgar]

This wouldn't have anything to do w/ npm. It would require node somehow discovering and then including the global npm install directories into node's require chain.

[ljharb]

It’s very intentional that you can’t do this; if you import or require something, it’s a dependency, and it must be in a package.json.

There’s a deprecated way you can do this for CJS, but it was left out of ESM by design since it’s a massive antipattern.

[trymeouteh]

Could this be made as an excepting if a shebang is present in the script? Shebangs allow for the script to be run like this in the command line...

./my-script.js

And not require running node

node my-script.js

[ljharb]

I’m sure it could, but that doesn’t mean it should. If you have dependencies, it’s a project, not a one-off script.

[jlenon7]

My workaround to this was a dynamic import with full path:

let ramda

try {
  ramda = await import('ramda')
} catch(err) {
  let npmGlobalPath = `~/.local/share/nvm/${process.version}/lib/node_modules`

  ramda = await import(`${npmGlobalPath}/ramda/src/index.js`)
}

console.log(R.add(5, 7));

Not very convenient, but works.

[RedYetiDev]

You could also use an import hook to translate the path if needed.

[jlenon7]

Yep, but it depends on the package you are using. I'm taking on consideration that your package entrypoint is ramda/src/index.js, but it could any other thing like ramda/index.js.