ts-node failing on "import" statements where tsconfig states "commonjs" module

I read through the now closed issue 212 and I think this is related but separate. In a nutshell what I’m trying to do is:

• run mocha leveraging ts-node
• my npm build script DOES compile to es2015 modules but the tsconf.json explicitly states the module type as commonjs (aka, the build script just overrides the default setting for module)
• When I run mocha, however, I get the all too familiar “Unexpected token import” error (full error below)
• What’s important to contextualize though is the specific import that it’s falling over on is a npm dependency that exports a es2015 module
• I’d have thought ts-node would treat an external es2015 module the same as a local files using es2015 but maybe there’s a difference?
• In my example the library module I’m working on is firemodel which depends on abstracted-admin. I’m the author of both and have tried switching over to es2015 to be more “rollup friendly”

My mocha command is:

mocha --compilers ts:ts-node/register --compilerOptions --recursive test/**/*-spec.ts

where the TS_NODE_COMPILER_OPTIONS ENV variable is set to:

‘{ “noImplicitAny”: false, “module”: “commonjs” }’

Here’s the full error I’m getting:

SyntaxError: Unexpected token import
    at createScript (vm.js:56:10)
    at Object.runInThisContext (vm.js:97:10)
    at Module._compile (module.js:542:28)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:487:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:497:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/ken/mine/forest-fire/firemodel/test/create-spec.ts:2:1)
    at Module._compile (module.js:570:32)
    at Module.m._compile (/Users/ken/mine/forest-fire/firemodel/node_modules/ts-node/src/index.ts:392:23)
    at Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10)
    at Object.require.extensions.(anonymous function) [as .ts] (/Users/ken/mine/forest-fire/firemodel/node_modules/ts-node/src/index.ts:395:12)
    at Module.load (module.js:487:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:497:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at /Users/ken/mine/forest-fire/firemodel/node_modules/mocha/lib/mocha.js:231:27
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at Mocha.loadFiles (/Users/ken/mine/forest-fire/firemodel/node_modules/mocha/lib/mocha.js:228:14)
    at Mocha.run (/Users/ken/mine/forest-fire/firemodel/node_modules/mocha/lib/mocha.js:514:10)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/ken/mine/forest-fire/firemodel/node_modules/mocha/bin/_mocha:480:18)
    at Module._compile (module.js:570:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:487:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:604:10)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:383:7)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:149:9)
    at bootstrap_node.js:496:3

[nnbosko]

There’s something wrong with your tsconfig.json, probably. Check carefully.

[blakeembrey]

ts-node doesn’t compile dependencies in node_modules. See https://github.com/TypeStrong/ts-node#configuration-options for more info. I’ll look into improving the README overall as soon as I get a chance, but feel free to submit your own PR.