Reply to: https://gist.github.com/3115640

bar.js

console.log('in bar')

foo.js

try {
  require('bar.js')
  console.log('success first time')
} catch (e) {
  console.error('failure first time')
}

module.paths.push(__dirname)

require('bar.js')
console.log('worked')

result

$ node foo.js 
failure first time
in bar
worked

Note: This should not be done. It's a design goal to make local requires obviously different from "outside the package" requires (either builtin modules or package deps.)