Speeding up NPM package install

Question

When I deploy my app to AWS, it's copied into a new directory, so NPM will install all the same packages, during each deploy, which can take a lot of time. Most of these packages haven't changed between builds (if at all), so having it do a full npm-install seems like a waste.

My app server runs a bunch of different Node apps, so installing globally isn't an option. Instead I'd like to have the app store it's node packages in a location that isn't wiped out during deployment, but have the option to update packages as necessary during npm install.

Does NPM have a concept of an app-specific module directory that isn't located in a subfolder of an app? That way I can delete the app folder, and not have to reinstall the same packages over and over again.

I could achieve this by using symlinks, or migrating the current node_module directory.

Answer 1

If you lock down your dependencies versions, NPM is likely to cache the packages. So the installation wouldn't take much longer.

If you prefer not to do this, you can install dependencies globally and link them with the npm link command (which is basically creating a symlink yourself!). Then, it'll be up to you update the globally installed packages regularly.