npm-fast-install

Installs and caches npm modules so that subsequent installs are super fast, especially if native C++ addons are being compiled.

npm-fast-install will read in the specified project directory's package.json, then for each dependency, installs that dependency into a temp directory. During the install process, C++ addons will be compiled. Next the installed files will be moved to the npm-fast-install cache directory (defaults to ~/.npm-fast-install). Finally the cached package will be copied into the project directory's node_modules directory.

It's important to note that every package is cached by its version + Node.js architecture + Node.js module API version. Since packages can have dependencies that are native C++ addon packages, every package is cached by these criteria. This means that if you install lodash@3.10.0 using Node.js 0.12 and 4.1, there will be 2 copies of lodash@3.10.0 in the cache.

Similarly if your project has a dependency on packages foo and bar and each of those have a dependency on lodash@3.10.0, lodash will be installed twice: one in foo/node_modules/lodash and one on bar/node_modules/lodash.

Basically, npm-fast-install is more about speed of subsequent npm installs than saving hard drive space.

How fast? On a MacBook Pro, the initial install of ejs, titanium, jade, npm, mongo, node-ios-device, ws, and zombie took around 25 seconds. Subsequent installs took around 3 seconds. Boom!

Installation

From npm:

npm install -g npm-fast-install

From GitHub:

npm install git://github.com/appcelerator/npm-fast-install.git

CLI Usage

npm-fast-install [project-dir] [options]

The project-dir is optional. It defaults to the current directory.

options

-h, --help             output usage information
-v, --version          output the version number
-a, --all              Installs all module deps; by default only installs production deps
-c, --cache-dir [dir]  Cache directory; defaults to "~/.npm-fast-install"
--allow-shrinkwrap     Force disable shrinkwrap; defaults to false
-j, --json             Outputs results as JSON

API

install(options)

Installs and caches all packages defined in the project directory's package.json.

Arguments

• options - An object with various settings. All options are optional.

  • dependencies (object) - override the dependencies from package.json.
  • allowShrinkwrap (boolean) - When true, tells npm to honor shrinkwrap settings. Defaults to false.
  • cacheDir (string) - The directory to cache modules. Defaults to ~/.npm-fast-install.
  • dir (string) - The directory containing the package.json. Defaults to process.cwd().
  • logger (object) - A logger to use. Defaults to console.
  • maxTasks (number) - The maximum number of npm install jobs to run simultaneously. Defaults to 5.
  • production (boolean) - When true, installs only dependencies, not dev dependencies. Defaults to true.

Returns

• Promise - A promise object

Example

var nfi = require('npm-fast-install');
 
nfi.install({
        cacheDir: '/tmp/npm-fast-install-cache',
        dir: '/path/to/project',
        allowShrinkwrap: false,
        logger: console,
        production: true
    })
    .then(function (results) {
        console.info('It worked!');
        Object.keys(results.modules).forEach(function (name) {
            console.info('%s@%s %s', name, results.modules[name].version, results.modules[name].path);
        });
    })
    .catch(function (err) {
        console.error('Oh no!');
        console.error(err);
        process.exit(1);
    });

License

Copyright (c) 2015 by Appcelerator, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This project is licensed under the Apache Public License, version 2. Please see details in the LICENSE file.