Cannot find module 'underscore' when running gulp production

[TexRx]

I get the following error when running the production build

events.js:72
        throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
              ^
Error: Cannot find module 'underscore' from '/Users/Chris/Projects/gulp-starter'

Do you not get this error when you run the production gulp task?

[ieugen]

maybe you have corrupted modules? try removing node_modules folder and do npm install again

[TexRx]

After a bit of testing, I determined that this error occurs if I do not have underscore installed as node_module on it's own. If I perform a checkout of this repo, then immediately run npm install, followed by gulp production, the error occurs. It seems very unlikely that these two steps would result in corrupt modules (I also ran npm cache clean before installing this repo). If I run npm install -D underscore, and then run gulp production, the project builds with no errors. On the other hand, if I do not install underscore as it's own module, but instead replace this line in the config.js:

require: ['jquery', 'underscore']

with:

require: ['jquery', 'backbone/node_modules/underscore']

the build completes successfully.

So, am I doing something else wrong with regard to the loading of underscore? Because, for me, it appears that I either need to have underscore installed as it's own module (e.g., do not rely on underscore within backbone module dependencies), or I have to explicitly specify the path to underscore within the backbone dependencies, when specifying the require-ed assets.

I referenced this during my troubleshooting: https://github.com/substack/node-browserify#brequirefile-opts

I should also note that it appears that listing underscore in the browser section of package.json makes no difference. I removed the underscore reference from package.json, and also tried every variation of the backbone > underscore reference that I could think of, and it made no difference. Additionally, I shim-ed underscore in the browserify-shim section, also to no avail.

[greypants]

Yeah, I saw this happen to a friend at work, but I couldn't replicate it on my machine. Might have something to do with minor version differences. I'll definitely look into it.

Your require: ['jquery', 'backbone/node_modules/underscore'] solution seems like a good one to me. That whole backbone underscore mess is only in this repo to call out a weird edge case where if you listed underscore as a normal dependency, you'd end up with two copies of underscore in your compiled bundle since Backbone is weird and comes with it.

[TexRx]

Thanks for the reply. I've run my starter kit (which borrows liberally from your examples here - thanks!!!) on several Macs and Windows machines, and everything is cool as long as I use backbone/node_modules/underscore in the require param array, so I'm going to stick with that for now. The main thing is that I know that it works. Thanks again for all your efforts putting your repo together. It has been immensely helpful.

[greypants]

👍

[greypants]

Was able to reproduce it after upgrading node and npm, killing my node_modules folder and running npm cache clean. Pushed up the fix you suggested with a note linking to this issue. Thanks!

Eventually I need to remove that backbone/underscore example. I think it's more confusing than helpful at this point. Maybe move a note about that edge case into the wiki instead.

[alpgumus]

Got this resolved by fixing the path of underscore in packages.json:

"underscore": "./node_modules/backbone/node_modules/underscore",