require-and-forget

Require Node module and immediately remove it from module cache to force loading again next time

This module is useful for testing when you want to force reloading and re-evaluating the NPM module.

Install

Requires Node version 4 or above.

npm install --save require-and-forget

Use

Whenever you want to get an exported value from a module, but not store it in the Node's require.cache. Imagine we have a file that just exports a random value

// random.js
module.exports = Math.random()

Ordinarily, every require('./random') will get the same value because it will be stored cached in the Node's cache. The ./random.js will not be evaluated every time you require it. Instead you can load and "forget it" to force re-evaluation.

const forget = require('require-and-forget')
const r1 = forget('./random')
const r2 = forget('./random')
// r1 and r2 will be different
// "random.js" will not be stored in the require.cache

Related projects

• unload-me - the module itself forces Node's cache to delete it after loading. Kind of self-destruct.
• Playing havoc with Node module system
• Hacking Node require
• Faster Node app require
• node-hook - Run source transform function on node require call.

Debug

Run code with DEBUG=require-and-forget environment variable

Small print

Author: Gleb Bahmutov <gleb.bahmutov@gmail.com> © 2017

• @bahmutov
• glebbahmutov.com
• blog

License: MIT - do anything with the code, but don't blame me if it does not work.

Support: if you find any problems with this module, email / tweet / open issue on Github

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2017 Gleb Bahmutov <gleb.bahmutov@gmail.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.