node.js require() cache - possible to invalidate?

Question

From the node.js documentation:

Modules are cached after the first time they are loaded. This means (among other things) that every call to require(\'

Answer 1

The solutions is to use:

delete require.cache[require.resolve()]

---

_{Find here some basic explanations for those who, like me, are a bit new in this:}

Suppose you have a dummy example.js file in the root of your directory:

exports.message = "hi";
exports.say = function () {
  console.log(message);
}

Then you require() like this:

$ node
> require('./example.js')
{ message: 'hi', say: [Function] }

If you then add a line like this to example.js:

exports.message = "hi";
exports.say = function () {
  console.log(message);
}

exports.farewell = "bye!";      // this line is added later on

And continue in the console, the module is not updated:

> require('./example.js')
{ message: 'hi', say: [Function] }

That's when you can use delete require.cache[require.resolve()] indicated in luff's answer:

> delete require.cache[require.resolve('./example.js')]
true
> require('./example.js')
{ message: 'hi', say: [Function], farewell: 'bye!' }

So the cache is cleaned and the require() captures the content of the file again, loading all the current values.