fails to capture executable in local node_modules dir (?)

[ORESoftware]

I have this:

foo/
   test.js
   package.json
   node_modules/
      .bin/
         istanbul

in test.js I have:

const which = require('which');
var resolved = which.sync('istanbul');

console.log(resolved);

in package.json I have:

  "dependencies": {
    "istanbul": "^0.4.5",
    "which": "^1.2.12"
  },

I get this error in test.js

Error: not found: istanbul
    at getNotFoundError (/home/olegzandr/Documents/WebstormProjects/suman-test-projects/subprojects/node-path-test/node_modules/which/which.js:13:12)
    at Function.whichSync [as sync] (/home/olegzandr/Documents/WebstormProjects/suman-test-projects/subprojects/node-path-test/node_modules/which/which.js:131:9)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/olegzandr/Documents/WebstormProjects/suman-test-projects/subprojects/node-path-test/test.js:7:22)
    at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:605:10)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:420:7)

this seems to suggest that node-which does not pick up executables in ./node_modules/.bin, ist das so?

[isaacs]

which only finds executables that are in the PATH. When running npm tests, the node_modules/.bin folder is put in the PATH, so that which can find them. Here's an example:

$ cat package.json
{
  "name": "which-node-modules-bin",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "node test.js",
    "path": "echo $PATH"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "istanbul": "^0.4.5",
    "which": "^1.2.12"
  }
}

$ cat test.js
const which = require('which');
var resolved = which.sync('istanbul');

console.log(resolved);

$ npm test

> which-node-modules-bin@1.0.0 test /Users/isaacs/dev/js/x/which-node-modules-bin
> node test.js

/Users/isaacs/dev/js/x/which-node-modules-bin/node_modules/.bin/istanbul

$ node test.js
/Users/isaacs/dev/js/x/which-node-modules-bin/node_modules/which/which.js:131
  throw getNotFoundError(cmd)
  ^

Error: not found: istanbul
    at getNotFoundError (/Users/isaacs/dev/js/x/which-node-modules-bin/node_modules/which/which.js:13:12)
    at Function.whichSync [as sync] (/Users/isaacs/dev/js/x/which-node-modules-bin/node_modules/which/which.js:131:9)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/isaacs/dev/js/x/which-node-modules-bin/test.js:2:22)
    at Module._compile (module.js:556:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:565:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:473:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:432:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:424:3)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:590:10)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:394:7)

$ npm run path

> which-node-modules-bin@1.0.0 path /Users/isaacs/dev/js/x/which-node-modules-bin
> echo $PATH

/Users/isaacs/dev/npm/npm/bin/node-gyp-bin:/Users/isaacs/dev/js/x/which-node-modules-bin/node_modules/.bin:/Users/isaacs/.basher/cellar/bin:/Users/isaacs/bin:/Users/isaacs/.rvm/bin:/Users/isaacs/.basher/bin:/Users/isaacs/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/include:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/libexec:/bin:/sbin

$ echo $PATH
/Users/isaacs/.basher/cellar/bin:/Users/isaacs/bin:/Users/isaacs/.rvm/bin:/Users/isaacs/.basher/bin:/Users/isaacs/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/include:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/libexec:/bin:/sbin

Note that the non-npm PATH envronment variable does not lead to any istanbuls, so which can't find it.

Working as designed.