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Cache doesn't speed up the install much

See original GitHub issue

If this is not the correct place to ask this, please point me in the right direction.

I have the most basic cache step:

- name: Cache node_modules
  uses: actions/cache@v2
  env:
    cache-name: cache-node-modules
  with:
    path: ~/.npm
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-build-${{ env.cache-name }}-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
    restore-keys: |
      ${{ runner.os }}-build-${{ env.cache-name }}-
      ${{ runner.os }}-build-
      ${{ runner.os }}-

…and it works as expected:

2020-10-02T14:33:01.7414870Z Received 26076859 of 26076859 (100.0%), 72.1 MBs/sec
2020-10-02T14:33:01.7417520Z Cache Size: ~25 MB (26076859 B)
2020-10-02T14:33:01.7454619Z [command]/bin/tar --use-compress-program zstd -d -xf /home/runner/work/_temp/086c9fc2-88ee-4881-bdaa-2a2c8f1015db/cache.tzst -P -C /home/runner/work/{{ censored }}
2020-10-02T14:33:01.8951789Z Cache restored from key: Linux-build-cache-node-modules-fd785df44b88bf30dd9aa1dbc1a05d8109a04b7556a7faaa30c5b6e8e0f6f3f1

…but the install still takes 11 seconds:

2020-10-02T14:33:14.0087247Z > core-js@3.6.5 postinstall /home/runner/work/{{ censored }}/node_modules/core-js
2020-10-02T14:33:14.0088330Z > node -e "try{require('./postinstall')}catch(e){}"
2020-10-02T14:33:14.0088750Z 
2020-10-02T14:33:14.6836898Z npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@1.2.13 (node_modules/watchpack-chokidar2/node_modules/fsevents):
2020-10-02T14:33:14.6842797Z npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@1.2.13: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
2020-10-02T14:33:14.6977981Z npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@2.1.3 (node_modules/fsevents):
2020-10-02T14:33:14.6979492Z npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@2.1.3: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
2020-10-02T14:33:14.6980325Z 
2020-10-02T14:33:14.7006254Z added 821 packages from 472 contributors and audited 823 packages in 11.745s
2020-10-02T14:33:15.1212777Z 
2020-10-02T14:33:15.1214296Z 32 packages are looking for funding
2020-10-02T14:33:15.1215209Z   run `npm fund` for details
2020-10-02T14:33:15.1215783Z 
2020-10-02T14:33:15.1218573Z found 0 vulnerabilities

For reference, the install without the cache step takes 14 seconds:

2020-10-02T14:31:24.4947005Z > core-js@3.6.5 postinstall /home/runner/work/{{ censored }}/node_modules/core-js
2020-10-02T14:31:24.4954346Z > node -e "try{require('./postinstall')}catch(e){}"
2020-10-02T14:31:24.4972025Z 
2020-10-02T14:31:25.1698380Z npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@1.2.13 (node_modules/watchpack-chokidar2/node_modules/fsevents):
2020-10-02T14:31:25.1752251Z npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@1.2.13: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
2020-10-02T14:31:25.1805284Z npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@2.1.3 (node_modules/fsevents):
2020-10-02T14:31:25.1807947Z npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@2.1.3: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
2020-10-02T14:31:25.1809039Z 
2020-10-02T14:31:25.1840360Z added 821 packages from 472 contributors and audited 823 packages in 14.647s
2020-10-02T14:31:25.6118300Z 
2020-10-02T14:31:25.6119530Z 32 packages are looking for funding
2020-10-02T14:31:25.6120300Z   run `npm fund` for details
2020-10-02T14:31:25.6120873Z 
2020-10-02T14:31:25.6130358Z found 0 vulnerabilities

On average, how much does actions/cache improve the install speed? Is this normal? I expected a bigger improvement. I think it will be faster if I cache the node_modules folder itself, instead of ~/.npm, but I’m guessing that can lead to unexpected behavior…

Am I using actions/cache properly?

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 3 years ago
Reactions:3
Comments:7 (1 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

1reaction

pavellozcommented, Sep 24, 2021

In my experiemnts, it actually slowed down the build. I had to add node action, cache action, and npm i is the same at best, usually 1-2 sec slower.

I thought im using the best case scenario step for it, because im installing puppeteer which is like 100mb every install.

Is there any benefit of using this action at all in nodejs?

1reaction

KTibowcommented, Oct 6, 2020

All it does is that it caches the downloads, not the built stuff is what I would believe.