webpack: Problem with amd modules: "define cannot be used indirect"

Sometimes webpack throws an error saying define cannot be used indirect. It’s caused by various third-party modules (like moment.js) which use a module pattern like

(function (factory) {
    if (typeof define === 'function' && define.amd) {
        define(['moment'], factory); // AMD
    } else if (typeof exports === 'object') {
        module.exports = factory(require('../moment')); // Node
    } else {
        factory(window.moment); // Browser global
    }
}(function (moment) { ... }))

What’s wrong with this module definition? And what can we do about it?

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 11 years ago
Reactions: 1
Comments: 34 (10 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

more reliable in parsing AMD stuff fixes #138 — committed to webpack/webpack by sokra 11 years ago
track free vars over IIFEs #138 — committed to webpack/webpack by sokra 11 years ago
track free vars over IIFEs #138 — committed to webpack/webpack by sokra 11 years ago
Fixing webpack incompatibilty with json-schema. Read here for details: * https://github.com/kriszyp/json-schema/issues/59 * https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/2101 Used a fix mentioned here: ... — committed to MOOCFetcher/moocfetcher-api by deepakjois 8 years ago
Requests loads a json validator that messes with how webpack ensures the module export system does not fail. Added noParse to that file after viewing discussion here https://github.com/webpack/webpac... — committed to N0taN3rd/wail by N0taN3rd 8 years ago
Dont parse `node_modules/json-schema/lib/validate.js` in order to avoid "define cannot be used indirect" error - See `https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/138` — committed to halhenke/reactor by halhenke 8 years ago
add workaround to handle webpack issue https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/138 — committed to scitran/organizer by deleted user 8 years ago

Most upvoted comments

Thanks, changed to

module: {
    noParse: /node_modules\/json-schema\/lib\/validate\.js/
}

+14

artem-russkikh on Nov 30, 2015

I am facing this error with jquery-migrate and none of answers did not worked. webpack : 4.28.2 os : windows npm : 6.1.02

sayjeyhi on Dec 26, 2018

I’m experiencing the same problem with the validate.js dependency however if I specify a pattern with more path levels than just /validate\.js/ in noParse, the amd-define.js built-in is added by webpack and the error about indirect define is thrown. Can anyone think of a reason the full node_modules path to the script as provided by @artem-russkikh wouldn’t match (yes, it is in the file system at that path).

Edit: apparently you need to allow for platform specific directory separators in your pattern, that’s all.

jmlane on Mar 19, 2016

The same problem with request@2.67.0 as node-gitlab dependency, but problem was in Validate.js https://github.com/ansman/validate.js/issues/12

module: {
    noParse: /validate\.js/
}

Fixes “define cannot be used indirect” problem

artem-russkikh on Nov 29, 2015

Your noParse config is very risky. It will ignore any file with that name. You should add node_modules or something to disambiguate it.

jhnns on Nov 30, 2015

Take your time, it’s christmas! 🎄 👍

jhnns on Dec 26, 2013