How Node Resolves Dependencies

README.md

How Node Resolves Dependencies

Read more about node_modules and how you can use them in official node/iojs docs:

If the module identifier passed to require() is not a native module, and does not begin with '/', '../', or './', then io.js starts at the parent directory of the current module, and adds /node_modules, and attempts to load the module from that location.

If it is not found there, then it moves to the parent directory, and so on, until the root of the file system is reached.

Here I show you how you can easily build a hierarchy of modules inside your project and use nested node_modules directories to manage dependencies within your application. This is a pretty good solution that doesn't require you to change NODE_PATH, use many git repositories or setting up a private registry.

sample-directory-structure.txt

/node_modules
  | 3rd-party modules: Request, Chalk, etc.
/src
  index.js
    | // this is your main file
    | var a = require('component-a'),
    |     b = require('component-b');
  /node_modules
    /component-a
      index.js
        | var x = require('subcomponent-x'), // see, no paths!
        |     y = require('subcomponent-y'),
        |     common = require('common-subcomponent-that-a-and-b-use'),
        |     request = require('request');
      /node_modules
        /subcomponent-x
          index.js
          /node_modules
            nest as deep as you like
        /subcomponent-y
          my-custom-name.js
            | // if you don't want to have many index.js files
          package.json
            | { 
            |    "name": "subcomponent-y", 
            |    "main": "./my-custom-name.js"
            | }
    /component-b
      index.js
      /node_modules
        | you can put 3rd party modules here, too!
    /common-subcomponent-that-a-and-b-use
      index.json
        | { "you-can": "require json files, too" }