Error when running NestJS build artifact in Nx workspace

Question

I'm running into errors when I try to run the build artifact of a NestJS app that was created within an Nx workspace. The error only occurs when I run the resulting artifact anywhere outside of the repository where no node_modules folder exists.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Clone this repo https://github.com/baumgarb/proxy-example
2. Run npm install to install all packages
3. Run ng build backend
4. Go into the dist folder in dist/apps/backend
5. Run node main.js in that folder, you should see the backend starting up successfully
6. Now copy main.js to a different location outside of the cloned repository (e.g. /tmp or c:\temp)
7. Run node main.js again in the new location and you'll run into the following error:

internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:775
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Cannot find module 'tslib'
Require stack:
- /home/bernhard/main.js
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:772:15)
    at Function.Module._lo[ad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:677:27)
    at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:830:19)
    at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:68:18)
    ...[omitted for brevity] {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
}

You can also try to run the build artifact in a Docker container, it will lead to the same error.

Here's also the comparison between my local machine and WSL:

Can anyone tell me what the issue is and how to fix it? Thanks a lot in advance!

Stableman

Any Update on a fix for this? – Pia

Answer 1

I was having this problem when building a Docker image for a Nestjs app in a Nx workspace.

I did the following workaround:

# BUILD

FROM node:16.11.1-slim as build

WORKDIR /app/nx

COPY nx /app/nx

RUN npm install -g [email protected] && \
    npm install && \
    nx build backend


# SERVE

FROM node:16.11.1-slim

ARG NODE_ENV=production
ENV NODE_ENV=${NODE_ENV}

WORKDIR /app/backend

COPY --from=build /app/nx/dist/apps/backend /app/backend

RUN npm install \
    [email protected] \
    @nestjs/[email protected] \
    @nestjs/[email protected] \
    @nestjs/[email protected] \
    @nestjs/[email protected]

EXPOSE 3333
CMD ["node", "/app/backend/main"]

Frigid