node module.paths confusion

Issue: required node modules do not use my global module.paths even though I add the global path to the array in my main.js application.

Example:

mymain.js

//global modules path
module.paths.push('C:\Users\xuser\AppData\Roaming\npm');
// finds ws in global modules path. Works!
wsmain=require('ws') 
// Now load a 3rd party module, which also requires('ws')
C = require('cmod.js');

cmod.js

ws=require('ws');  // fails to find global path

q: How do I make sure that module global is also passed on to the require modules. Is there a way to pass it as a parameter or something?

Solution

I'm not sure there is a "global" path. The node.js documentation suggests a default require takes place relative to the file requiring it, and searches for a node_modules directory up the directory chain. From the docs:

For example, if the file at '/home/ry/projects/foo.js' called require('bar.js'), then node would look in the following locations, in this order:

/home/ry/projects/node_modules/bar.js

/home/ry/node_modules/bar.js

/home/node_modules/bar.js

/node_modules/bar.js

It looks like you can use NODE_PATH env var to give a list of places to look for modules:

https://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules_loading_from_the_global_folders

Based on the documentation, the following might work:

NODE_PATH=/path/to/node_modules/where/ws/lives node mymain.js