From 20faf9097d3ed674f9bdd0bef19423163911ad3b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Wolfgang Steiner Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2016 19:29:36 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] doc: explain error message on missing main file Added a hint saying that node uses the default "Cannot find module" error when requiring a module for which the "main" file specified in the package.json is missing. PR-URL: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/5812 Reviewed-By: Myles Borins Reviewed-By: Benjamin Gruenbaum Reviewed-By: James M Snell --- doc/api/modules.markdown | 8 ++++++++ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc/api/modules.markdown b/doc/api/modules.markdown index 4c4cacbaf68ac1..20c8b175cd9340 100644 --- a/doc/api/modules.markdown +++ b/doc/api/modules.markdown @@ -346,6 +346,14 @@ If this was in a folder at `./some-library`, then This is the extent of Node.js's awareness of package.json files. +Note: If the file specified by the `"main"` entry of `package.json` is missing +and can not be resolved, Node.js will report the entire module as missing with +the default error: + +``` +Error: Cannot find module 'some-library' +``` + If there is no package.json file present in the directory, then Node.js will attempt to load an `index.js` or `index.node` file out of that directory. For example, if there was no package.json file in the above