cache-loader

What is cache-loader?

The cache-loader package is used to speed up the build process by caching the results of expensive loaders in webpack. This can significantly reduce build times by avoiding redundant processing.

What are cache-loader's main functionalities?

Caching Loader Results

This feature allows you to cache the results of loaders like babel-loader. By using cache-loader before babel-loader, the results of babel-loader are cached, which can significantly speed up subsequent builds.

const path = require('path');

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.js$/,
        use: [
          'cache-loader',
          'babel-loader'
        ],
        include: path.resolve('src')
      }
    ]
  }
};

Custom Cache Directory

This feature allows you to specify a custom directory for the cache. This can be useful if you want to control where the cache files are stored, for example, to avoid conflicts or to place them in a directory that is not cleaned up by other processes.

const path = require('path');

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.js$/,
        use: [
          {
            loader: 'cache-loader',
            options: {
              cacheDirectory: path.resolve('node_modules/.cache/cache-loader')
            }
          },
          'babel-loader'
        ],
        include: path.resolve('src')
      }
    ]
  }
};

Other packages similar to cache-loader

hard-source-webpack-plugin

The hard-source-webpack-plugin provides an intermediate caching step for modules. It is more comprehensive than cache-loader as it caches the entire module state, not just the loader results. This can lead to even faster builds, but it is also more complex to set up and maintain.

babel-loader

While babel-loader itself is not a caching solution, it can be used in conjunction with cache-loader to cache the results of Babel transpilation. This combination is often used to speed up the build process for JavaScript projects.

webpack

Webpack itself has built-in caching mechanisms starting from version 5. These built-in features can sometimes replace the need for cache-loader, offering a more integrated and potentially more efficient caching solution.

README

cache-loader

Caches the result of following loaders on disk.

Install

npm install --save-dev cache-loader

Usage

Add this loading in from of other (expensive) loaders to cache the result on disk.

Examples

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.js$/,
        include: path.resolve("src"),
        use: [
          "cache-loader",
          "babel-loader"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

with options

use: [
  {
    loader: "cache-loader",
    options: {
      // provide a cache directory where cache items should be stored
      cacheDirectory: path.resolve(".cache")
    }
  },
  "babel-loader"
]

Maintainers

sokra

Changelog

1.0.2 (2017-04-26)

Bug Fixes

• readme: fill content into the README (7b5d5fd)

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