Andrew Hart

Some tests are failing, even before my changes.

Refs: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/43192 Refs: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/43368

@ljharb there has been some discussion in the referenced issue, but I hoped having code to play with might facilitate additional discussion.

@guybedford @bmeck When considering policies for [issue 43192 ](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/43192), I considered command line arguments, environment variables, and a file-based indicator. Some projects, such as NPM, spawn child processes which either...

Would it be useful to have an environment variable **in addition to** looking in the file system? If so, there would be questions of how multiple paths are joined into...

> If policies were automatically looked up it would solve the problem as well. They intentionally do not compose though. If we go for files I would prefer that approach...

Like environment variables, CLI arguments don't necessarily get passed to child processes.

Using a field in package.json might not be as convenient as it first sounds. 1. Libraries often ship the same package.json that is used during development, but using a field...

@guybedford could you elaborate on your single path idea? With Node.js looking in so many paths for dependencies, especially with symlink handling, perhaps you have a simplified or recommended pattern...

@guybedford Thanks. I think I see the direction you are suggesting. While some sort of mechanism for ambient configuration of Node.js seems useful, it also seems like a long route...