What is rechoir?
The rechoir npm package is used to automatically load the appropriate module to handle a given file extension. It allows a project to require files with different extensions and have them preprocessed using the correct handler before being used. This is particularly useful when working with various transpilers or preprocessors in a Node.js environment.
What are rechoir's main functionalities?
Registering preprocessors for file extensions
This feature allows you to register preprocessors for specific file extensions. In the code sample, rechoir is used to prepare handling of '.ts' and '.coffee' files before requiring them.
require('rechoir').prepare({extensions: ['.ts', '.coffee']}, 'path/to/file.ts');
Other packages similar to rechoir
interpret
The 'interpret' package is similar to rechoir in that it maps file extensions to their associated module loaders. However, it does not automatically register these loaders; it simply provides the mapping for other tools to use.
liftoff
Liftoff is a higher-level tool that integrates with 'interpret' to provide a CLI tool that can automatically handle pre-processing files with different extensions. It is more feature-rich than rechoir, offering a more complete solution for bootstrapping applications with custom configurations and build steps.
require-extension-hooks
This package allows you to hook into the require function to add support for additional file types. It is similar to rechoir but provides a more granular control over the require process, allowing developers to define custom behavior when requiring specific file types.
rechoir
Require any supported file as a node module.
What is it?
This module, in conjunction with interpret-like objects can register any file type the npm ecosystem has a module loader for. This library is a dependency of Liftoff.
API
prepare(config, filepath, requireFrom)
Look for a module loader associated with the provided file and attempt require it. If necessary, run any setup required to inject it into require.extensions.
config
An interpret-like configuration object.
filepath
A file whose type you'd like to register a module loader for.
requireFrom
An optional path to start searching for the module required to load the requested file. Defaults to the directory of filepath
.
If calling this method is successful (aka: it doesn't throw), you can now require files of the type you requested natively.
An error with a failures
property will be thrown if the module loader(s) configured for a given extension cannot be registered.
If a loader is already registered, this will simply return true
.
Note: While rechoir will automatically load and register transpilers like coffee-script
, you must provide a local installation. The transpilers are not bundled with this module.
Usage
const config = require('interpret').extensions;
const rechoir = require('rechoir');
rechoir.prepare(config, './test/fixtures/test.coffee');
rechoir.prepare(config, './test/fixtures/test.csv');
rechoir.prepare(config, './test/fixtures/test.toml');
console.log(require('./test/fixtures/test.coffee'));
console.log(require('./test/fixtures/test.csv'));
console.log(require('./test/fixtures/test.toml'));