The package manager of exile.watch
5 min read
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Last updated
5 min read
Last updated
TL;DR: exile.watch is using NPM as it's package manager.
NPM was causing the fewest issues, without really deteriorating the developer experience.
Package manager is a tool that automates the process of installing, updating, configuring, and removing software packages or libraries from a project.
These packages are typically distributed through a registry, with npm (Node Package Manager) being the most widely used registry in the JavaScript community.
Package managers help developers manage dependencies (external code or libraries that a project relies on) efficiently and ensure consistency across development environments.
The most commonly used package managers in the JavaScript ecosystem are:
npm: The default package manager for Node.js, allowing users to install and manage dependencies from the npm registry.
Yarn: Developed by Facebook, Yarn is a faster, more secure alternative to npm, offering improvements in speed, reliability, and security for managing dependencies.
pnpm: Standing for "performant npm," pnpm offers efficiency by symlinking packages from a single content-addressable storage, reducing disk space usage and increasing installation speed compared to npm and Yarn.
In my experience with exile.watch, npm has been a reliable package manager, particularly appreciating its support for a multi-package approach through monorepo workspaces and the way it handles package dependencies in the root node_modules, aligning seamlessly with our architecture.
However
the slow speed of npm install (well only few seconds, but comparing to other package managers - yeah, it's slow as fuck),
coupled with the lack of hot reloading for .next dependencies (probably because of the aforementioned #2828 issue since I'm on windows)
are notable drawbacks that could (and did in some way at few points) impact productivity.
The exile.watch architecture aligns with the first three limitations and caveats of Yarn, leading me to initially dismiss Yarn due to its different package management philosophy.
Looking back, I realize this decision might have been premature. The documentation I referenced pertains to Yarn 1.x, which is quite outdated.
Further research revealed that Yarn has progressed to version 4.x, far beyond the 2.x release I was vaguely aware of.
This oversight is particularly regrettable because, throughout my 7-year career, I never professionally used Yarn, thus locking my understanding of this package manager in a medieval times.
Which sucks, as I recall how effectively yarn link worked comparing to npm link.
When I first gave pnpm a go, the speed at which it handled installs was the first thing that made me take notice. It was impressively quick. And when I got into using pnpm link for hot reloading, it worked like a charm—no hiccups at all.
However, I soon hit a couple of bumps.
One was with linking packages. It turned out that the node_modules/.bin/ directory wasn’t getting the bin links from all the nested packages, which was a bit of a letdown because it messed with my continuous integration setup. (see #96 and #899).
Then, there was pnpm dedupe step needed after installation. Not a deal-breaker, but definitely an extra hoop to jump through.
The binaries thing was a bit of a curveball too. Since the necessary bin executables from the nested packages weren’t automatically linked, pnpm tried to step in and fix the gap by installing them (and this was causing weird inconsistencies as well).
This move kind of threw a wrench into my neat architecture plans, making things look more complex than I wanted. To get around that, I found myself resorting to the --shamefully-hoist.
But then I started experiencing inconsistencies with linking the packages locally akin to npm issues mentioned above.
If I'm forcing pnpm to act as npm, then what's the point of using pnpm?
Author: Sebastian Krzyżanowski About exile.watch: https://docs.exile.watch/ Github: https://github.com/exile-watch Visit https://exile.watch/ to experience it first hand
