require from path

Create require that's binded to a directory different from where your code is located.

For example:

const requireFrom = require("require-from-path")("/some/other/dir");
const foo = requireFrom("./foo.js");
const bar = requireFrom("bar");

Above code will:

require the file /some/other/dir/foo.js
Search and require the module bar starting at /some/other/dir.

Purpose

Given the directory structure below with two NodeJS apps:

app1
|-+ foo
| +-- index.js
| +--+ node_modules
|    +--+ x
|       + ...
app2
|-+ bar
| +-- index.js
| +--+ node_modules
|    +--+ y
|       + ...

When you call require("x") in /app1/foo/index.js, NodeJS will search and find module x there.

Now from the same file, if you want to resolve the module y under the directory /app2/bar, you have to use an absolute or relative path directly pointing to y, and you may have to do some searching, probably re-implementing Node's module searching algorithm if you don't know exactly where y could be.

However, in the file /app2/bar/index.js, it can just do require("y") and Node would automatically find the module for it, because that file is at the location where y is under.

What if from the file /app1/foo/index.js, you can call require as if you were at the directory /app2/bar, then you would be able to utilize Node's module searching automatically.

To achieve this, most other implementations choose to re-implement Node's module searching algorithm.

This module's approach is to tap into Node's module and let it do the work.

Install

$ npm install require-from-path --save

Usage

A single function is exported.

`requireFromPath(dir, [request])`

If you call it with just dir, then it returns a require function that's been binded to the directory dir. You can use it to load any module as if you are at dir.
- You can also call require.resolve with the same effect.
If you call it with dir and a request, then it will load and return the module request as if at dir.

Example

const requireFromPath = require("require-from-path");
 
// get back a require binded to /another/dir
 
const requireFromPathAnother = requireFromPath("/another/dir/");
const modXPath = requireFromPathAnother.resolve("modX");
const modX = requireFromPathAnother("modX");
 
// load modY at /another/yet/dir directly
 
const modY = requireFromPath("/another/yet/dir", "modY");