Module.export-ing a New Instance

Question

If I attach an object to the module.exports object in node like so:

module.exports = new Object()

will each object = require('./Object') throughout my application create a new instance of that object, or will it create a reference to the one instance?

Answer 1

require() caches files that it executes.

The first time you require('./Object'), it will run your code and place the exported object in require.cache.
Subsequent calls will return the cached object immediately.

You could remove your module from the cache yourself, or use a getter, but those are bad ideas.

Answer 2

Check out caching caveats in the node docs. You'll get the same object as long as the resolved module path matches. There's an example in this answer of when resolved paths would not match.