how to setup node_path for hubot

I'm using hubot (specifically hubot-hipchat) and want to use the https://github.com/scriby/asyncblock node module. What is the correct way to import/require a node module in hubot?

I cd to where I installed hubot (~/hubot) and did

Edit hubot/packages.json added hubot-hipchat,asyncblock to the dependencies section.

  "dependencies": {
    "hubot-hipchat": ">= 1.0.4",
    "hubot": "2.1.4",
    "hubot-scripts": ">=2.0.4",
    "optparse": "1.0.3",
    "asyncblock": "2.0.8"
  }

I then do the following in my scripts/test.coffee script:

asyncblock = require('asyncblock')

When I start hubot, I get the error: ERROR Error: Cannot find module 'asyncblock'

~/hubot/node_modules/asyncblock exists. So then I try to do :

require.paths.push('/home/ubuntu/hubot/node_modules')

Now I don't get the can't find error, but I get a new one:

ERROR Error: require.paths is removed. Use node_modules folders, or the NODE_PATH environment variable instead.

What am I doing wrong?

I'm just trying to exec a system command on the ubuntu server where I have hubot running:

  asyncblock((flow) ->
    exec('node -v', flow.add())
    result = flow.wait()
    msg.send result
  )

Edit: so if I set the NODE_PATH env var to the following it works:

env NODE_PATH="/usr/lib/nodejs:/usr/share/javascript:/home/ubuntu/hubot/node_modules"

Why does it not by convention look in hubot/node_modules ??

Where is your script with the require('asyncblock')? Is it in a subdirectory of ~/hubot? If not, its require function won't look in ~/hubot/node_modules.

Check the value of module.paths from that script to see all of the non-global paths that script's require looks at.

It's much simpler to do this. I'm using hubot and hipchat too. All you need to do is:

cd hubot-dir;
npm install asyncblock

Here's what you should observe:

$ npm install asyncblock
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/asyncblock
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/asyncblock
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/asyncblock/-/asyncblock-2.0.9.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/asyncblock/-/asyncblock-2.0.9.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/fibers/0.6.7
npm http GET https://github.com/scriby/UglifyJS/tarball/1.2.5-6
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/fibers/0.6.7
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/fibers/-/fibers-0.6.7.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/fibers/-/fibers-0.6.7.tgz
npm http 200 https://github.com/scriby/UglifyJS/tarball/1.2.5-6
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/node-gyp
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/node-gyp
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/node-gyp/-/node-gyp-0.4.5.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/node-gyp/-/node-gyp-0.4.5.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/ansi
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/glob
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/graceful-fs
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/fstream
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/rimraf
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/mkdirp
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/nopt
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/semver
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/tar
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/which
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/request
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/ansi
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/ansi/-/ansi-0.0.4.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/graceful-fs
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/graceful-fs/-/graceful-fs-1.1.8.tgz
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/mkdirp
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/fstream
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/fstream/-/fstream-0.1.18.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/rimraf
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/rimraf/-/rimraf-2.0.2.tgz
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/nopt
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/glob
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/glob/-/glob-3.1.9.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/semver
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/semver/-/semver-1.0.14.tgz
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/request
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch/-/minimatch-0.2.5.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/which
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/tar
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/which/-/which-1.0.5.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/tar/-/tar-0.1.13.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/graceful-fs/-/graceful-fs-1.1.8.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/ansi/-/ansi-0.0.4.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/fstream/-/fstream-0.1.18.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/rimraf/-/rimraf-2.0.2.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/glob/-/glob-3.1.9.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch/-/minimatch-0.2.5.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/semver/-/semver-1.0.14.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/which/-/which-1.0.5.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/tar/-/tar-0.1.13.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/abbrev
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/inherits
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/inherits
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/inherits
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/block-stream
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/abbrev
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/inherits
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/inherits/-/inherits-1.0.0.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/inherits
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/inherits
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache/-/lru-cache-1.1.0.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/block-stream
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/block-stream/-/block-stream-0.0.5.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/inherits/-/inherits-1.0.0.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache/-/lru-cache-1.1.0.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/block-stream/-/block-stream-0.0.5.tgz

fibers@0.6.7 install /tmp/hubot/node_modules/asyncblock/node_modules/fibers
node ./build.js

`linux-ia32` exists; skipping build
asyncblock@2.0.9 ./node_modules/asyncblock
├── uglify-js_scriby@1.2.5-6
└── fibers@0.6.7 (node-gyp@0.4.5)