assigning “exports” to a function in nodejs module doesn't work

Question

in one file (otherFile.js) I have this:

exports = function() {}

in my main file I have this:

var thing = require(\'./otherFile.         


        

Answer 1

Consider this code:

!function(exports) {
    // your module code
    exports = 12345
}(module.exports)

console.log(module.exports)

It won't work, and it's easy to see why. Node.js exports object is defined exactly like this, with an exception of arguments ordering.

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So always use module.exports instead of exports, it'll do the right thing.