Folders as modules

There are three ways in which a folder may be passed to require() as an argument.

The first is to create a package.json file in the root of the folder, which specifies a main module. An example package.json file might look like this:

{ "name" : "some-library",
  "main" : "./lib/some-library.js" }

If this was in a folder at ./some-library, then require('./some-library') would attempt to load ./some-library/lib/some-library.js.

If there is no package.json file present in the directory, or if the "main" entry is missing or cannot be resolved, 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 previous example, then require('./some-library') would attempt to load:

• ./some-library/index.js
• ./some-library/index.node

If these attempts fail, then Node.js will report the entire module as missing with the default error:

Error: Cannot find module 'some-library'

In all three above cases, an import('./some-library') call would result in a ERR_UNSUPPORTED_DIR_IMPORT error. Using package subpath exports or subpath imports can provide the same containment organization benefits as folders as modules, and work for both require and import.