NodeJS require a global module/package

I'm trying to install globally and then use forever and forever-monitor like this:

npm install -g forever forever-monitor

I see the usual output and also the operations that copy the files to the global path, but then if I try to require("forever"); I get an error saying that the module wasn't found.

I'm using latest version of both node and npm and I already know about the change that npm made in global vs local install, but I really don't want to install localy on every project and I'm working on a platform that doesn't support link so npm link after a global install isn't possible for me.

My question is: why I can't require a globally installed package? Is that a feature or a bug? Or am I doing something wrong?

PS: Just to make it crystal clear: I don't want to install locally.

In Node.js, require doesn't look in the folder where global modules are installed.

You can fix this by setting the NODE_PATH environment variable. In Linux this will be: export NODE_PATH=/usr/lib/node_modules (this depend on where your global modules are actually installed).

See here: http://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules_loading_from_the_global_folders

After you install package globally you have to link the local project with global package

npm install express -g
cd ~/mynodeproject/
npm link express  

See here

Apologies for the necromancy but I'm able to specify hard-links to globally installed modules:

var pg = require("/usr/local/lib/node_modules/pg");

This isn't perfect but considering that Unity3d tries to "compile" all javascript that is included in the project directory I really can't install any packages.