node . and npm start don't work

Question

The title says most of the problem. When I try to run node . I get:

    module.js:340     throw err;           ^ Error: Cannot find module 'static-favicon'     at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)     at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)     at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)     at startup (node.js:119:16)     at node.js:902:3 

There seems to be no modules folder actually. I'm just running express in an empty directory

npm works fine however. This is with a fresh express install if it matters. Any help would be awesome, thanks!

the full error messages:

 new-host-2:~ Brennan$ cd Desktop/ new-host-2:Desktop Brennan$ mkdir test4 new-host-2:Desktop Brennan$ cd test4 new-host-2:test4 Brennan$ express -e     create : .    create : ./package.json    create : ./app.js    create : ./public    create : ./public/javascripts    create : ./public/images    create : ./public/stylesheets    create : ./public/stylesheets/style.css    create : ./routes    create : ./routes/index.js    create : ./routes/users.js    create : ./views    create : ./views/index.ejs    create : ./views/error.ejs    create : ./bin    create : ./bin/www     install dependencies:      $ cd . && npm install     run the app:      $ DEBUG=test4 ./bin/www  new-host-2:test4 Brennan$ node app.js  module.js:340     throw err;           ^ Error: Cannot find module 'static-favicon'     at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)     at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)     at Module.require (module.js:364:17)     at require (module.js:380:17)     at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/Brennan/Desktop/test4/app.js:3:15)     at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)     at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)     at Module.load (module.js:356:32)     at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)     at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10) new-host-2:test4 Brennan$ npm start app.js npm ERR! Error: ENOENT, open '/Users/Brennan/Desktop/test4/node_modules/app.js/package.json' npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this *entire* log, npm ERR! including the npm and node versions, at: npm ERR!     <http://github.com/npm/npm/issues>  npm ERR! System Darwin 12.4.0 npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "start" "app.js" npm ERR! cwd /Users/Brennan/Desktop/test4 npm ERR! node -v v0.10.26 npm ERR! npm -v 1.4.7 npm ERR! path /Users/Brennan/Desktop/test4/node_modules/app.js/package.json npm ERR! code ENOENT npm ERR! errno 34 npm ERR!  npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in: npm ERR!     /Users/Brennan/Desktop/test4/npm-debug.log npm ERR! not ok code 0 new-host-2:test4 Brennan$ forever app.js warn:    --minUptime not set. Defaulting to: 1000ms warn:    --spinSleepTime not set. Your script will exit if it does not stay up for at least 1000ms  module.js:340     throw err;           ^ Error: Cannot find module 'static-favicon'     at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)     at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)     at Module.require (module.js:364:17)     at require (module.js:380:17)     at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/Brennan/Desktop/test4/app.js:3:15)     at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)     at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)     at Module.load (module.js:356:32)     at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)     at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10) error: Forever detected script exited with code: 8 

Answer 1

After using the express-generator to generate the node application, you need to install the dependencies for the project. This is done via:

$ npm install 

Once this is done, you can start the app using npm:

$ npm start 

By default, the express generated apps state this as the start command for npm (you can view this in the package.json file):

"start": "node ./bin/www" 

So to execute the same thing via the command line, you would run:

$ node ./bin/www 

Answer 2

I had the same issue after running the express-generator on a non-empty directory with some node modules already installed in node_modules, especially express itself. Simply nuke the folder, reinstall all your dependencies and you should be good to go:

rm -rf ./node_modules npm install npm start 

EDIT: Tuns out that at some stage in the process I had installed serve-favicon and saved that to the local package.json. Looks like the express generator failed to add that dependency. Therefore:

npm install serve-favicon --save npm start