Ability to force *not* loading native client

[gabegorelick]

node-postres supports setting NODE_PG_FORCE_NATIVE to force the loading of the native client, but there's no way to force it to not load the native client:

if (typeof process.env.NODE_PG_FORCE_NATIVE !== 'undefined') {
  module.exports = new PG(require('./native'))
} else {
  module.exports = new PG(Client)

  // lazy require native module...the native module may not have installed
  module.exports.__defineGetter__('native', function () {
    delete module.exports.native
    var native = null
    try {
      native = new PG(require('./native'))
    } catch (err) {
      if (err.code !== 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND') {
        throw err
      }
      /* eslint-disable no-console */
      console.error(err.message)
      /* eslint-enable no-console */
    }
    module.exports.native = native
    return native
  })
}

This can cause spurious warnings about pg-native module not found. See sequelize/sequelize#3781 for an example caused by cloning node-postgres objects.

Potential solution: support a NODE_PG_NO_LOAD_NATIVE environment variable. Setting this would cause the native getter to not be defined. Setting both NODE_PG_NO_LOAD_NATIVE and NODE_PG_FORCE_NATIVE could throw an error.

I'm happy to throw together a PR if there's support for something like this.

[seeden]

I see Cannot find module 'pg-native' in my logs. This will help

[rasilva-mission]

Does anyone know how to run pg without 'pg-native'?
ERROR in ./node_modules/pg/lib/native/client.js Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'pg-native' in 'C:\Users\xxxxxx\Documents\projects\xxxxxx\node_modules\pg\lib\native'

This project compiles electron windows app and I don't want to include the native module just need client.

[imjordanm]

I am looking for this same solution. All I need is a way of not forcing pg-native, which I can't use because of its libpq dependency causing build failures. Like OP said, if there was an environment variable to bypass the above lazy require module, that would be a life-saver. The last version that works without pg-native is 3.6.4, but that has it's own issues for me with a missing helper.js file.

[charmander]

@imjordanm Last version of what? pg doesn’t require pg-native.

[imjordanm]

It does, if you look at the code OP posted there is no way of getting around require("./native") which in turn requires pg-native.
This is the error code unless you install pg-native:

ModuleNotFoundError: Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'pg-native' in '/mnt/d/Backup/Jordan/Jordan/Web/projects/gamifynow/node_modules/pg/lib/native'

Would only need a config option native: true/false, or an environment variable to not force pg-native.

The issue for me is that pg-native has libpq as a dependency and I need to apt-get libpq-dev in order for it to work, which I can't when hosting on Netlify. So I can't use pg-native.

[charmander]

It does, if you look at the code OP posted there is no way of getting around require("./native") which in turn calls pg-native.

if (typeof process.env.NODE_PG_FORCE_NATIVE !== 'undefined') {

  // lazy require native module...the native module may not have installed
  module.exports.__defineGetter__('native', function () {

If you don’t define the NODE_PG_FORCE_NATIVE environment variable and don’t access pg.native, require("./native") will never be called.

If you’re using some kind of bundler that looks at requires statically, there’s typically a way to add an exception.

[imjordanm]

Thanks for your quick response. I have tried adding and removing the env variable, and all the imports I can think of. Is there some way of not accessing pg.native? I am using create-react-app/webpack. I tried installing react-app-rewired and customize-cra to try ignore native but couldn't get it to work either.

new webpack.IgnorePlugin(/.\/native/)

module.exports = override(babelExclude([path.resolve("pg/lib/native")]));

Perhaps I am not putting the right paths?

[charmander]

#1187 (comment) suggests

new webpack.IgnorePlugin(/pg-native/, /\/pg\//),

[imjordanm]

I greatly appreciate your help, it made me go back and have a better look at my webpack configuration. I managed to solve it and will leave what I did here incase someone gets stuck in the same place. This is for people using netlify-lambda alongside node-postgres:

Netlify-lambda has its own webpack config and so the webpack config to exclude the native module needs to be here instead.

//webpack-functions.js
const webpack = require("webpack")

module.exports = {
    plugins: [new webpack.IgnorePlugin(/pg-native/, /\/pg\//)]
  };

//package.json
"build:server": "netlify-lambda build src/functions --config webpack-functions.js"

[gabegorelick]

Making native non-enumerable is potentially a better solution than NODE_PG_NO_LOAD_NATIVE, but it's potentially a breaking change.

[papb]

Hello, I am very happy to see this going forward, we in Sequelize have a lot of users complaining about Cannot find module 'pg-native'.

However, my opinion about this (from an outsider perspective, who doesn't really know the internals of what's going on though), is that the existence of this getter itself is a bit strange, no?

Why is this seemingly magical getter necessary? Couldn't it be simply a .getNative() instead?

[gabegorelick]

Why is this seemingly magical getter necessary? Couldn't it be simply a .getNative() instead?

That would be a much bigger breaking change. I think simply making native non-enumerable, as proposed in #1992, solves all of the issues that I am aware of without breaking all but the most contrived usages.

[papb]

Hmm, ok, makes sense :)

[charmander]

As of pg 8.0, native isn’t enumerable. (Cloning modules still sounds like a bug in sequelize or in the use of sequelize, though.)

[AWare]

This seems to really break badly with parcel as a bundler.