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Pnpm

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Fast, disk space efficient package manager:

  • Fast. Up to 2x faster than the alternatives (see benchmark).
  • Efficient. Files inside node_modules are linked from a single content-addressable storage.
  • Great for monorepos.
  • Strict. A package can access only dependencies that are specified in its package.json.
  • Deterministic. Has a lockfile called pnpm-lock.yaml.
  • Works as a Node.js version manager. See pnpm env use.
  • Works everywhere. Supports Windows, Linux, and macOS.
  • Battle-tested. Used in production by teams of all sizes since 2016.

Background

pnpm uses a content-addressable filesystem to store all files from all module directories on a disk. When using npm or Yarn, if you have 100 projects using lodash, you will have 100 copies of lodash on disk. With pnpm, lodash will be stored in a content-addressable storage, so:

  1. If you depend on different versions of lodash, only the files that differ are added to the store. If lodash has 100 files, and a new version has a change only in one of those files, pnpm update will only add 1 new file to the storage.
  2. All the files are saved in a single place on the disk. When packages are installed, their files are linked from that single place consuming no additional disk space. Linking is performed using either hard-links or reflinks ( copy-on-write).

As a result, you save gigabytes of space on your disk and you have a lot faster installations! If you'd like more details about the unique node_modules structure that pnpm creates and why it works fine with the Node.js ecosystem, read this small article: Flat node_modules is not the only way.

Benchmark

pnpm is up to 2x faster than npm and Yarn classic. See all benchmarks here.

Benchmarks on an app with lots of dependencies:

Dependencies and volume mapping

Docker volume mapping

https://pnpm.io/npmrc#node-modules-settings

Container location Description
/root/.local/share/pnpm/store The pnpm store module location is on
/root/.local/share/pnpm/store The pnpm global store location pnpm i -g ...

Config

https://pnpm.io/npmrc

The pnpm config command can be used to update and edit the contents of the user and global .npmrc files.

The four relevant files are:

  • per-project configuration file (/path/to/my/project/.npmrc)
  • per-workspace configuration file (the directory that contains the pnpm-workspace.yaml file)
  • per-user configuration file (~/.npmrc)
  • global configuration file (/etc/npmrc)

Benchmark on real project

We ran some tests on local computer to check performance of pnpm with shared volume containers and various projects

With dependencies :

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@angular-extensions/elements": "~12.6.0",
    "@angular-extensions/model": "^10.0.1",
    "@angular/animations": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/cdk": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/common": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/compiler": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/core": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/forms": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/material": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/router": "~12.2.6",
    "@fortawesome/angular-fontawesome": "^0.7.0",
    "@fortawesome/fontawesome-free": "^5.15.1",
    "@fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core": "^1.2.32",
    "@fortawesome/free-brands-svg-icons": "^5.15.1",
    "@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons": "^5.15.1",
    "@ngrx/effects": "~12.0.0",
    "@ngrx/entity": "~12.0.0",
    "@ngrx/router-store": "~12.0.0",
    "@ngrx/store": "~12.0.0",
    "@ngrx/store-devtools": "~12.0.0",
    "@ngx-translate/core": "^13.0.0",
    "@ngx-translate/http-loader": "^6.0.0",
    "bootstrap": "^5.0.1",
    "browser-detect": "^0.2.28",
    "rxjs": "~6.6.3",
    "tslib": "^2.2.0",
    "uuid": "^8.3.1",
    "zone.js": "~0.11.4"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@angular-devkit/build-angular": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular-eslint/eslint-plugin": "~12.0.0",
    "@angular/cli": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/compiler-cli": "~12.2.6",
    "@angular/language-service": "~12.2.6",
    "@commitlint/cli": "^11.0.0",
    "@commitlint/config-conventional": "^11.0.0",
    "@types/jasmine": "~3.6.0",
    "@types/node": "^14.14.7",
    "@types/uuid": "^8.3.0",
    "@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin": "^4.7.0",
    "@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin-tslint": "^4.7.0",
    "@typescript-eslint/parser": "^4.7.0",
    "all-contributors-cli": "^6.19.0",
    "assert": "^2.0.0",
    "codelyzer": "^6.0.0",
    "eslint": "^7.13.0",
    "eslint-config-prettier": "^6.15.0",
    "eslint-plugin-import": "^2.22.1",
    "express": "^4.16.4",
    "husky": "^4.3.0",
    "jasmine-core": "~3.6.0",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "~5.0.0",
    "karma": "~6.3.2",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "~3.1.0",
    "karma-coverage": "~2.0.3",
    "karma-jasmine": "~4.0.0",
    "karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "^1.5.0",
    "karma-spec-reporter": "^0.0.32",
    "npm-run-all": "^4.1.5",
    "postcss": "^8.3.6",
    "prettier": "^2.1.2",
    "pretty-quick": "^3.1.0",
    "protractor": "^7.0.0",
    "raw-loader": "^4.0.2",
    "rimraf": "^3.0.2",
    "standard-version": "^9.3.0",
    "ts-node": "~9.0.0",
    "tslint": "~6.1.3",
    "typescript": "~4.2.4",
    "webpack": "^5.51.1",
    "webpack-bundle-analyzer": "^4.1.0"
  }
}

pnpm install

  • First launch with empty store : 50s
  • First launch with filled store : 18s
  • Second launch with pnpm-lockfile.yml and filled store : 10s
  • Other second launch with pnpm-lockfile.yml and empty store : 40s
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