How to use executables from a package installed locally in node_modules?

Question

How do I use a local version of a module in node.js. For example, in my app, I installed coffee-script:

npm install coffee-script

Answer 1

Add this script to your .bashrc. Then you can call coffee or anyhting locally. This is handy for your laptop, but don't use it on your server.

DEFAULT_PATH=$PATH;

add_local_node_modules_to_path(){
  NODE_MODULES='./node_modules/.bin';
  if [ -d $NODE_MODULES ]; then
    PATH=$DEFAULT_PATH:$NODE_MODULES;
  else
    PATH=$DEFAULT_PATH;
  fi
}

cd () {
  builtin cd "$@";
  add_local_node_modules_to_path;
}

add_local_node_modules_to_path;

note: this script makes aliase of cd command, and after each call of cd it checks node_modules/.bin and add it to your $PATH.

note2: you can change the third line to NODE_MODULES=$(npm bin);. But that would make cd command too slow.