.env NODE_PATH is not working in v1.1.0

bug In reference to the same issue: https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/issues/2230 NODE_PATH is ignored when defined in .env file.

And that contradicts the latest docs.

You can adjust various development and production settings by setting environment variables in your shell or with .env. NODE_PATH: Same as NODE_PATH in Node.js, but only relative folders are allowed. Can be handy for emulating a monorepo setup by setting NODE_PATH=src.

Why does it happen? It happens because NODE_PATH should be configured when config/env.js executes.

And dotenv module does not modify existing variables.

We will never modify any environment variables that have already been set. In particular, if there is a variable in your .env file which collides with one that already exists in your environment, then that variable will be skipped.

https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/blob/5348d6eecf208a6298e48072314157804282002e/packages/react-scripts/config/env.js#L36-L49

So the code will simply fail to append NODE_PATH from an .env file to process.env.NODE_PATH variable that is used to provide this feature

https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/blob/5348d6eecf208a6298e48072314157804282002e/packages/react-scripts/config/env.js#L60-L65

Solution

Manually add NODE_PATH string received from the dotenv.configure parsed property.

{ 
  parsed: { 
    NODE_PATH: 'src',
    REACT_APP_ELSE: 'foo' 
  } 
}

[saurabhwahile]

I use the NODE_PATH variable for absolute imports, is there any other solution to this?

[yasharma]

setting NODE_PATH=src in .env is not working for me, create-react-app version 1.5.2, i’ve tried to import components like 'components/Nav', however it throws Module not found: Can't resolve 'components/Nav' in '/home/yash/my-app/src', however if i run NODE_PATH=src react-scripts start it’s working, i checked by console.log(process.env) it show object { NODE_ENV:"development", PUBLIC_URL:""}