Resolving require paths with webpack

In case anyone else runs into this problem, I was able to get it working like this:

var path = require('path');
// ...
resolve: {
  root: [path.resolve(__dirname, 'src'), path.resolve(__dirname, 'node_modules')],
  extensions: ['', '.js']
};

where my directory structure is:

.
├── dist
├── node_modules
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── src
│   ├── components
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── main.js
│   └── styles
├── webpack.config.js

Then from anywhere in the src directory I can call:

import MyComponent from 'components/MyComponent';

resolve.alias should work exactly the way you described, so I'm providing this as an answer to help mitigate any confusion that may result from the suggestion in the original question that it does not work.

a resolve configuration like the one below will give you the desired results:

// used to resolve absolute path to project's root directory (where web pack.config.js should be located)
var path = require( 'path' );
...
{
  ...
  resolve: {
    // add alias for application code directory
    alias:{
      mydir: path.resolve( __dirname, 'path', 'to', 'mydir' )
    },
    extensions: [ '', '.js' ]
  }
}

require( 'mydir/myfile.js' ) will work as expected. If it does not, there must be some other issue.

If you have multiple modules that you want to add to the search path, resolve.root makes sense, but if you just want to be able to reference components within your application code without relative paths, alias seems to be the most straight-forward and explicit.

An important advantage of alias is that it gives you the opportunity to namespace your requires which can add clarity to your code; just like it is easy to see from other requires what module is being referenced, alias allows you to write descriptive requires that make it obvious you're requiring internal modules, e.g. require( 'my-project/component' ). resolve.root just plops you into the desired directory without giving you the opportunity to namespace it further.

For future reference, webpack 2 removed everything but modules as a way to resolve paths. This means root will not work.

https://gist.github.com/sokra/27b24881210b56bbaff7#resolving-options

The example configuration starts with:

{
  modules: [path.resolve(__dirname, "app"), "node_modules"]
  // (was split into `root`, `modulesDirectories` and `fallback` in the old options)

Webpack >2.0

See wtk's answer.

Webpack 1.0

A more straightforward way to do this would be to use resolve.root.

http://webpack.github.io/docs/configuration.html#resolve-root

resolve.root

The directory (absolute path) that contains your modules. May also be an array of directories. This setting should be used to add individual directories to the search path.

In your case:

webpack config

var path = require('path');

// ...

  resolve: {
    root: path.resolve('./mydir'),
    extensions: ['', '.js']
  }

consuming module

require('myfile')

or

require('myfile.js')

see also: http://webpack.github.io/docs/configuration.html#resolve-modulesdirectories