bundle-dependencies

Deprecated

The original benchmarks of bundledDependencies have been flawed.

To achieve the same result of bundle-dependencies using bundledDependencies package.json property:

1. Add all dependencies to bundledDependencies package.json property.
2. Before publishing, start in clean directory (i.e., rm -fr ./node_modules).
3. Install dependencies using --production flag (i.e., npm install --production).
4. Publish package.

You can use bundled-dependencies package to automate the first step.

npm install bundled-dependencies --save-dev

Add to package.json:

{
    "scripts": {
        "bundle-dependencies": "bundled-dependencies"
    }
}

Run:

npm run bundle-dependencies

bundle-dependencies

Bundles (deep) all module dependencies into a monolithic NPM package.

bundle-dependencies is designed to be used with devDependencies and modules installed using --global flag.

How much time can it save? Lets see.

2.3.63 release is done without bundle-dependencies.

time npm install pragmatist@2.3.63

34.59s user
6.15s system
24% cpu
2:44.35 total

2.3.64 release is done with bundle-dependencies.

time npm install pragmatist@2.3.64

5.41s user
2.34s system
36% cpu
21.175 total

The bundle-dependencies install process is 8 times faster (2 minutes 44 seconds compared to 21 second).

Usage

npm install bundle-dependencies --save-dev

Add to package.json:

{
    "scripts": {
        "publish-bundle": "bundle-dependencies publish"
    }
}

To publish your package with bundled dependencies, run:

npm run publish-bundle

.npmignore

Add to .npmignore (and .gitignore):

.backup.package.json
.backup.node_modules

These are the backup files of your original ./package.json and ./node_modules. Do not commit them to the package registry.

Considerations

• This tool will not work if package has dependencies with native bindings (Issues #1 and #2).

Implementation

bundle-dependencies publish execution flow is:

1. Runs bundle-dependencies internal prepublish logic.
2. Executes npm publish.
3. Runs bundle-dependencies internal postpublish logic.

Do not add bundle-dependencies script to prepublish, publish or postpublish package.json scripts. NPM copies the contents of package.json before prepublish script is executed. This makes the internal prepublish logic impossible. prepublish and postpublish commands are exposed for testing only.

Internal prepublish logic.

1. Backup the existing ./node_modules.
2. Backup the existing ./package.json.
3. Install package dependencies (npm install --production).
4. Compress ./node_modules to ./bundled_modules.tar.
5. Remove all dependencies from ./package.json.
6. Add bundled-dependencies dependency to ./package.json.
7. Add postinstall script to ./package.json.

Internal postpublish logic.

1. Delete ./bundled_modules.tar.
2. Delete ./package.json.
3. Restore the original ./node_modules.
4. Restore the original ./package.json.

postinstall script

The postinstall script is:

bundled-dependencies extract

1. Deletes ./node_modules.
2. Extracts ./bundled_modules.tar to ./node_modules.