strict-import

Prevent require from searching upwards for required modules

Background

The require() algorithm works by searching for a node_modules directory with your required module from the current directory and upwards until it reaches the system root directory.

This means that if you have nested projects, and have a module called foo installed at the top-level, the sub-projects can also import foo without installing it. While useful in some cases, it can also cause problems.

I made this module because I'm working on an Electron app, where we use electron-builder with a two package structure. We depended on module foo in the renderer, which was defined top-level, since we use Webpack for bundling. We later started using foo in the main process code too, which is placed in an app subdirectory. The problem is that we forgot to add foo as a dependency in the app directory, but it worked fine in development as require just found it at the top-level. In production, however, it crashed, since we no longer had the top-level dependency, as only the app directory is included in the built app. With this module, we can ensure that doesn't happen again.

Install

$ npm install strict-import

Usage

At the top of your index.js file.

require('strict-import')(module);
 
// This now only works if `foo` is in `./node_modules`,
// but not if it's in `../node_modules`
const foo = require('foo');

License

MIT © Sindre Sorhus