Can node.js be configured to only use a globally-installed modules and ignore a local node_modules directory?
For our node.js app (currently node.js 8.10.0), we build a Docker image where the required modules are installed globally, in a /node_modules folder, with the environment set to NODE_PATH=/node_modules. This works for production deployment.
For local development, we run the same Docker image, but mount the local development files at /app. This allows any locally changed files to be used by the image.
This works, until a developer runs npm install on their host system, and creates a node_modules directory. This is mounted at /app/node_modules. node examines this folder on startup, and starts complaining about missing binaries:
kumascript_1 | ## There is an issue with `node-fibers` ##
kumascript_1 | `/app/node_modules/fibers/bin/linux-x64-57/fibers.node` is missing.
kumascript_1 |
kumascript_1 | Try running this to fix the issue: /usr/local/bin/node /app/node_modules/fibers/build
kumascript_1 | /app/node_modules/fibers/fibers.js:20
kumascript_1 | throw new Error('Missing binary. See message above.');
kumascript_1 | ^
kumascript_1 |
kumascript_1 | Error: Missing binary. See message above.
kumascript_1 | at Object.<anonymous> (/app/node_modules/fibers/fibers.js:20:8)
kumascript_1 | at Module._compile (module.js:652:30)
kumascript_1 | at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:663:10)
kumascript_1 | at Module.load (module.js:565:32)
kumascript_1 | at tryModuleLoad (module.js:505:12)
kumascript_1 | at Function.Module._load (module.js:497:3)
kumascript_1 | at Module.require (module.js:596:17)
kumascript_1 | at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
kumascript_1 | at Object.<anonymous> (/app/lib/kumascript/templates.js:11:13)
kumascript_1 | at Module._compile (module.js:652:30)
If there was a way to tell node to ignore /app/node_modules, then a developer can do what they want with npm install on the host system, and the Docker container would continue running as expected.
