Question

I’ve installed NVM for node.js using the instructions from this post:

http://www.backdrifter.com/2011/02/18/using-nvm-and-npm-to-manage-node-js/

When I switch between node versions and then use npm to install a module, all the modules are placed in the same ‘node_modules’ folder (~/node_modules/) instead of in the ‘node_modules’ directory specific to that version of node?

Any idea on how to remedy this?

Answer 1

Based on the comments from https://github.com/creationix/nvm/pull/97:

When installing packages with npm using the global switch -g the
package ends up in the proper directory (i.e.
.nvm/$VERSION/lib/node_modules), however node is unable to require it
since it somehow isn’t searching on it’s prefix.

So using npm install -g xxxxx will put the modules in the correct location for NVM but if you try to require one of them node can’t find the module. I am still playing around with this and will update if I find a solution.

Update

Where does NPM put node_modules? (see https://docs.npmjs.com/files/folders)

• Local install (default): puts stuff in ./node_modules of the current package root.
• Global install (with -g): puts stuff in /usr/local or wherever node is installed.
• Install it locally if you’re going to require() it.
• Install it globally if you’re going to run it on the command line.
• If you need both, then install it in both places, or use npm link.

So what I did was run npm init (see http://npmjs.org/doc/init.html) in my projects root dir which generated package.json. Now when I run npm install xxxxx it creates a node_modules dir in my project folder (which I add to my .gitignore). This works for modules that I require in my code.

For commands such as CoffeeScript I install with npm install -g coffee-script which puts it in the correct directory (.nvm/$VERSION/lib/node_modules). While I can’t require these modules (npm link should solve this problem) I can run the commands – i.e. coffee.