node-gyp-cache

node-gyp-cache 🌾

Improve your workflow by caching native dependencies.

If you're tired of pages and pages of C++ warnings when you just want to develop a JavaScript project, look no further. node-gyp-cache caches native dependencies for a faster workflow, and silences the compiler output for a happier experience. Additionally, it can improve the performance of your continuous integration builds.

⚠️ This project is new and experimental. There may be bugs, although I believe the significant improvement in developer experience is worth the risks. Please report anything you find!

Installation

Global

Global installation is recommended for the best benefits if you work in an area were native dependencies are commonplace, such as Ethereum development.

npm install -g node-gyp-cache
npm config set node_gyp node-gyp-cache

# optional for yarn users
yarn config set node_gyp node-gyp-cache

If you ever uninstall, remember to remove this configuration using npm config delete node_gyp.

Local

Local installation is useful for optimizing CI builds.

npm install --save-dev node-gyp-cache
echo node_gyp = node-gyp-cache >> .npmrc

It will also be necessary to configure your CI to cache node-gyp-cache's cache directory. It will be located in $XDG_CACHE_HOME/node-gyp-cache, which is usually ~/.cache/node-gyp-cache.

Caveats

If you're developing a JavaScript project under normal circumstances, there should be no caveats.

This tool is designed specifically for caching builds of dependencies installed from a single registry (or its mirrors). For a given package name and version we assume that build artifacts will be the same.

If you are developing a package that itself contains native addons, you should be cautious. The cache will be bypassed if the package being built is not under a node_modules directory, so there should be no issues in most scenarios, but this measure can fail under some circumstances (such as installing a development version of the package through a tarball).