A question on usage of require

[Deva Kumaraswamy]

I ran into install issues on Centos with one of the popular and useful packages ref.

when I do 

npm install ref

I get the following error: "Cannot find module '../'.

The offending line is

var gyp = require('../')

In my limited experience with nodejs I have never used this form of require.

What exactly is this supposed to resolve to?

Thanks the help.

Deva

===================

PS: part of the traceback.

npm install ref

 

> r...@0.3.2 install /sasusr/u/kumar/node_modules/ref

> node-gyp rebuild

\

module.js:340

    throw err;

          ^

Error: Cannot find module '../'

    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)

    at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)

    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)

    at require (module.js:380:17)

    at Object.<anonymous> (/sasusr/u/kumar/node-v0.10.29-linux-x64/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js:13:11)

    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)

    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)

    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)

    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)

    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)

npm ERR! r...@0.3.2 install: `node-gyp rebuild`

npm ERR! Exit status 8

[mscdex]

On Thursday, July 10, 2014 9:40:56 PM UTC-4, Deva Kumaraswamy wrote:

when I do 

npm install ref

I get the following error: "Cannot find module '../'.

It installs fine for me on node v0.10.29. What node (`node -v`) and npm (`npm -v`) version are you using?

[mgutz]

require('../') means require parent directory's index.js. When a require path is a directory, node tries index.js.

[Deva Kumaraswamy]

Thanks. That is pretty nifty. However:

I do not see an index.js in the npm->node->modules->node-gyp directory or any of its sub directories. 

My directories on windows looks the same.

Still puzzled, 

Subnote: There is a node-gyp entry in the lib directory that exports the entries the failing code seems to be looking for. 

[Ryan Graham]

It's only index.js by default. If there is a package.json in that directory it is used to look up the package's "main" entry point. It defaults to "index.js", but it is often something like "lib/<someclass>.js".

~Ryan

On Sat, Jul 12, 2014 at 8:01 PM, Deva Kumaraswamy <devakuma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks. That is pretty nifty. However:

I do not see an index.js in the npm->node->modules->node-gyp directory or any of its sub directories. 

My directories on windows looks the same.

Still puzzled, 

Subnote: There is a node-gyp entry in the lib directory that exports the entries the failing code seems to be looking for. 

On Friday, July 11, 2014 6:59:48 PM UTC-4, mgutz wrote:

require('../') means require parent directory's index.js. When a require path is a directory, node tries index.js.

--
http://twitter.com/rmgraham

[Deva Kumaraswamy]

Ok. That makes sense.

I am checking thru the directories and comparing what I have on my Centos box with what is on my windows box. when I get into work,  I will run the debugger to see why it is failing - hpefully it is something as simple as permissions.:-)

thanks...

[Deva Kumaraswamy]

mscdex asked about my version. I am running 0.10.29 - the latest.

I did further investigation:  looking thru node-gyp issues  it looks like there are some unresolved issues related to permissions on Unix.

Just out of curiosity I moved the package.json from ./lib directory under node-gyp to the parent directory (node-gyp). The process got further but then it ran into an issue updating  /myroot/.node-gyp.

So overall, the explanation I got to my original question helped me understand how require works - thanks.

But as these things go I am still without an answer to my originalproblem - I will turn to the node-gyp issues on github seeking more information (although it looks like everyone is stymied by a variety of permission related issues on Linux). I might go looking for an Unix guru in my organization to help sort this out.

Thanks for the help.

[Sam Roberts]

On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Deva Kumaraswamy
<devakuma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I will turn to the node-gyp issues on github seeking more information
> (although it looks like everyone is stymied by a variety of permission
> related issues on Linux). I might go looking for an Unix guru in my
> organization to help sort this out.

Might be a variant of:

https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/5637

You could try posting into that issue if this is reproduceable, if
more people poke this, it might get fixed.

And fwiw... I don't personally ever have permissions issues on Linux
:-), but I chmoded by /usr/local to be owned by my login, this is the
npm happy path, allowing installation into /usr/local without sudo.

Cheers,
Sam

[Deva Kumaraswamy]

yes - the problem seems related. I have seen variations of this issue reported - an example: .node-gyp cannot be accessed during the install. 

I will track your report also.