Incorrect .node module require

[stalker8610]

Hi guys!
Either here is a bug with .node modules requiring or I can't understand what is wrong with my script.

Here is a repo with bug reproduction

How to reproduce:

1. clone repo
2. run 'npm i'
3. run not built source - 'node index' to see in console that ActiveX is a function (is expected behavior)
4. run 'npm run build'
5. run 'node build/index.cjs' to see the bug in built

Expected behavior - requires content of .node module, then uses it as a module.
Current behavior - it seems like after build it tries to use PATH to module instead of it's content. Please see the screenshots, if I add 'require(..)' it starts work right.

[evanw]

You explicitly told esbuild to do this when you passed --loader:.node=file. That's what the file loader does: https://esbuild.github.io/content-types/#file. This is not a bug with esbuild.

[stalker8610]

omg, I'm blind :) thanks, I just need to use 'copy' mode

[evanw]

I'm closing this issue because this is not a bug. You told esbuild to embed the path to the file in the bundle as a string, so that's what it did. You don't have to do that. There are other loaders for other things. For example, you can use the copy loader if you want esbuild to continue reference the file instead.

But you should probably just exclude the relevant package for the bundle entirely because many packages with native .node modules expect a arrangement of files on the file system and don't like being copied to a different location. This is covered in the getting started instructions for node: https://esbuild.github.io/getting-started/#bundling-for-node.