Globally set node_modules location for project

Question

If I write

var moment = require('moment');

in my project, Node wastes a lot of time looking in places that do not actually contain the file, as this dtruss output shows.

       PID/THRD  RELATIVE SYSCALL(args)                 = return
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244530 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE5D8, 0x9)          = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244575 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment.js\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x9)               = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244595 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment.json\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x9)             = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244612 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment.node\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x9)             = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244628 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment.coffee\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x9)           = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244663 open("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment/package.json\0", 0x0, 0x1B6)                = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244694 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment/index.js\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)               = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244713 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment/index.json\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)             = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244729 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment/index.node\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)             = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244745 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/models/node_modules/moment/index.coffee\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)           = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244767 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE5D8, 0x1B6)               = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244788 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment.js\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)            = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244805 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment.json\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)          = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244821 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment.node\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)          = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244837 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment.coffee\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)                = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244862 open("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment/package.json\0", 0x0, 0x1B6)               = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244887 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment/index.js\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)              = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244904 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment/index.json\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)            = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244920 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment/index.node\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)            = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244936 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/api/node_modules/moment/index.coffee\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)          = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244964 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/node_modules/moment\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE5D8, 0x1B6)           = 0 0
 7079/0x7cf313:   1244990 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/node_modules/moment.js\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)                = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1245015 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/node_modules/moment.json\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)              = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1245038 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/node_modules/moment.node\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x1B6)              = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1245488 madvise(0x1008AE000, 0x21000, 0x9)             = 0 0
 7079/0x7cf313:   1245503 stat64("/Users/burke/code/api/node_modules/moment.coffee\0", 0x7FFF5FBFE578, 0x9)              = -1 Err#2
 7079/0x7cf313:   1245612 open("/Users/burke/code/api/node_modules/moment/package.json\0", 0x0, 0x1B6)           = 11 0

Is there a way to make Node not waste so much time looking in places that don't contain a node_modules directory? Like, I could set some kind of CHECK_HERE_FIRST=$HOME/code/api/node_modules environment variable and if the require is not for a relative path, that would be the first place that Node checked.

I could change all of my require lines to load the relative import but this seems cumbersome for a large project.

Answer 1

This behavior (making too many stat) has been removed (see PR) from io.js v2.3.1, it will be available in the next major version of node.js.