more of an aspiration than a claim

npm linked modules with webpack

I was was having some problems with an npm module that was not updated on the “master” branch. It also had a lot of dependent child libs. There was a “develop” branch that I wanted to try. For some reason I had an issue with trying to use the “develop” branch from npm.

npm install user/project#branch

I probably should have open a Stack Overflow question about it, but maybe later.

I ended up going a different route and using npm link and cloning a copy of the library.

I am trying to use WebPack, which seems like black magic… like a lot of the node ecosystem if you ask me.

Anyway, the code was still not compiling and could not find some of these dependent modules. Turns out this was not WebPack’s fault, but another pain point I have found when using npm link.

The WebPack documentation has a description of the problem in their troubleshooting guide to get WebPack to find the dependencies of npm linked modules.

http://webpack.github.io/docs/troubleshooting.html#npm-linked-modules-doesn-t-find-their-dependencies