import javascript module: The requested module X does not provide an export named Y

I am having a problem to import some of the content of a JavaScript module (ipfs). Here is the code (test.js), taken from OrbitDB Module with IPFS Instance that I am trying to run from the command line as a node app (node test.js):

import IPFS from 'ipfs'
import OrbitDB from 'orbit-db'

;(async function () {
  const ipfs = await IPFS.create()
  const orbitdb = await OrbitDB.createInstance(ipfs)

  // Create / Open a database
  const db = await orbitdb.log("hello")
  await db.load()

  // Listen for updates from peers
  db.events.on("replicated", address => {
    console.log(db.iterator({ limit: -1 }).collect())
  })

  // Add an entry
  const hash = await db.add("world")
  console.log(hash)

  // Query
  const result = db.iterator({ limit: -1 }).collect()
  console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2))
})()

When I run this code from the command line with node, it throws the following error:

import IPFS from 'ipfs'
       ^^^^
SyntaxError: The requested module 'ipfs' does not provide an export named 'default'
    at ModuleJob._instantiate (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:127:21)
    at async ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:193:5)
    at async Promise.all (index 0)
    at async ESMLoader.import (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:337:24)
    at async loadESM (node:internal/process/esm_loader:88:5)
    at async handleMainPromise (node:internal/modules/run_main:61:12)

Process finished with exit code 1

I tried to find out what is wrong here. So I ctrl-clicked on ipfs and it takes me to the following index.d.ts:

/**
 * @typedef {import('ipfs-core-types').IPFS} IPFS
 */
export const create: typeof import("ipfs-core/src/components").create;
export const crypto: typeof import("libp2p-crypto");
export const isIPFS: typeof import("is-ipfs");
export const CID: typeof import("multiformats").CID;
export const multiaddr: typeof import("multiaddr").Multiaddr;
export const PeerId: typeof import("peer-id");
export const globSource: typeof import("ipfs-utils/src/files/glob-source");
export const urlSource: typeof import("ipfs-utils/src/files/url-source");
export const path: typeof pathImport;
export type IPFS = import('ipfs-core-types').IPFS;
import { path as pathImport } from "./path.js";
//# sourceMappingURL=index.d.ts.map

It looks to me like IPFS is exported by a named export. So I tried to change my code to named import, like this:

import {IPFS} from 'ipfs'

This throws the following error:

import {IPFS} from 'ipfs'
        ^^^^
SyntaxError: The requested module 'ipfs' does not provide an export named 'IPFS'
    at ModuleJob._instantiate (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:127:21)
    at async ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:193:5)
    at async Promise.all (index 0)
    at async ESMLoader.import (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:337:24)
    at async loadESM (node:internal/process/esm_loader:88:5)
    at async handleMainPromise (node:internal/modules/run_main:61:12)

Process finished with exit code 1

So how can I solve this problem?

Here is the package.json that I have together with test.js:

{
  "name": "ipfs-test",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",  
  "type": "module"
}

I should mention that I wrote the code in Intellij, and it did not show a compilation error, which it usually does when it cannot locate imports. So that's also weird.

There is no default export (export default somethingSomething) so using import IPFS from 'ipfs' won't work.

You are half-right that a named export IPFS is there, however you looked at a TypeScript definition file, and the export named IPFS is just a type in TypeScript and not anything JavaScript even sees.

Instead, you can see that the create method you used in IPFS.create is a named export, so import { create } from 'ipfs' would work, but in fact you can keep your code that uses IPFS.create and simply change import IPFS from 'ipfs' to import * as IPFS from 'ipfs'!

The import * as something from 'something' syntax will give you an object with all named exports inside.