Express module not found when installed with NPM

Question

When I try to run the app.js file created by express, I get the following error:

$ node app.js

node.js:134
        throw e; // process.nextTick error, or 'error' event on first tick
        ^
Error: Cannot find module 'express'
    at Function._resolveFilename (module.js:320:11)

When I type in 'express --version' I get a return statement of 2.3.3. I used npm to install express. I had to manually make npm using these instructions:

git clone http://github.com/isaacs/npm.git
cd npm
sudo make install

The error is Error: Cannot find module 'express'.

Do I need to do something after installing npm and express in order to make express see the modules created by npm?

My node is version: 0.4.6 My express is version: 2.3.3 My npm is version: 1.0.6

Express is installed globally. I used the -g flag to install it.

Edit: When I try "node -e require.paths" I get:

[ '/home/user/.node_modules', '/home/user/.node_libraries', '/usr/local/lib/node' ]

So, node isn't detecting the npm installation. How do I get node to detect the npm installation?

Answer 1

On Ubuntu 12.04 you have to add the export NODE_PATH=/usr/local/lib/node_modules to your /.bashrc to use globally installed modules.

Answer 2

What about NODE_PATH=/usr/local/lib/node_modules in .bashrc or .bash_profile? I think it's the real correct way.

Answer 3

• Install express

  npm install -g express

• Create a new app

  express your_app

• cd into app directory

  cd your_app

• use npm link to resolve modules

  npm link express

Answer 4

It looks like the easiest way to do this is to run npm install from your app's folder. This tells npm to hook everything up.

It's the last instruction after express <appname>:

...
dont forget to install dependencies:
$ cd <appname> && npm install

Answer 5

Finally with Linux a good way to do is to use the command : sudo apt-get install node-express

But with express 4 we must use express-generator to make app skeleton, install it with 'npm install express-generator -g', and then run 'express myapp' command. see also install express

Answer 6

Set NODE_PATH=NODE_HOME\node_modules.

I'm using windows 7 and it works fine.