[Packager] Global require replace (ala webpack's resolve.alias and browserify's builtins)

[vespakoen]

I am working on making modules that depend on browserify's builtins compatible with react-native.

My current pull request over at node-haste supports the browserify builtins but unfortunately node-haste is depended upon by other packages, so I am looking for a more generic solution.

The first solution that came to my mind is to support a config option with "global replacements".
This way, we could tell node-haste to replace / alias packages.

How are we feeling about supporting this?

To me this seems an obvious problem that we should fix since it will make a lot more packages compatible with react-native, the most important win being (imo) having access to all the streaming libraries.

Related issues

1. support resolve.alias ala webpack #5917
   Fixed, But only works on a per-module level, this issue is for replacing modules on a global level, allowing us to "imitate" browserify's builtins.

2. Compatibility: node packages depending on V8 can't function in react-native iOS #5881
   Twilio client uses the "crypto" browserify builtin

3. Using NodeJS modules packages via Browserify? #5555
   Somebody that wants to use builtins

4. "Error: Requiring module "BatchedBridge" which threw an exception" after upgrade to 0.14.1 #4022 and "ReferenceError: Can't find variable: process" after update to 0.14.2 #4098
   Requiring a package that expects process to be present (maybe already fixed by the addition of the "browser" and "react-native" field)

5. Is it possible to use replacement module with Packager? #4018
   Someone trying to use (a package that depends on) the "net" package

6. [Packager] should use compatible versions of node core modules #1871
   More people wanting node-ish support in react-native

7. packager assume that every method named require is module loader function #5988
   Somebody trying to use a library that depends on the "stream" builtin

There are probably a bunch more out there but this is what I could collect with a couple of searches.

[mvayngrib]

+1

[ambarc]

+1000

[jacobrosenthal]

The product pains for this is https://productpains.com/post/react-native/packager-support-resolvealias-ala-webpack/ Please Bump

[AugustoL]

+1

[lacker]

This definitely sounds useful. As an issue, this seems like a duplicate of the product pains link, so I'm going to close this issue in favor of that.