Using ES6 syntax in Node script with Babel

Question

I have an npm CLI tool that is using ES6 syntax from BabelJS. Specifically, I am using arrow functions from ES6.

In my entry point to the tool, I have the following require:

require('babel-core/register');
var program = require('./modules/program.js');

I also have a .babelrc file in root that looks like such:

{ "presets": ["es2015"] }

In this instance, program.js is where most of the heavy lifting is done. And in this file there is an arrow function like:

arrayOfStrings.forEach((substr) => {
    console.log(substr);
});

If I run this tool with the following command, it works just fine.

node index.js --options

However, if I publish this tool with npm publish and run it like so:

tool-name --options

I get this error:

/usr/local/lib/node_modules/unfollow/modules/program.js:134
    arrayOfStrings.forEach((substr) => {
                             ^^
SyntaxError: Unexpected token =>
    at exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:73:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:443:25)
    at Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
    at Object.require.extensions.(anonymous function) [as .js] (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/tool-name/node_modules/babel-core/node_modules/babel-register/lib/node.js:138:7)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/tool-name/index.js:7:15)
    at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)

Does anyone know why this could be?

@FelixKling interesting! so upgrading my node version did work, but I'm still curious why that failed. — Zack
– Zack, Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 16:42

loganfsmyth · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-19 17:45:51Z

2

babel-register is only meant to simplify local development, not for distributed packages. If you are making something for npm, you should compile it to ES5 beforehand.

answered Jan 19, 2016 at 17:45

loganfsmyth

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1 Comment

Zack Over a year ago

You're right. You know when you read something and you realize your total mindset was wrong. This did that for me. Thanks, @loganfsmyth.

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