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test-local-npm-speed

Compare the npm install times for local-npm versus regular npm, using some popular JavaScript repos.

• test-local-npm-speed
• Summary - nolanlawson/tiny-queue - lodash/lodash - substack/node-browserify - strongloop/express - facebook/react - gulpjs/gulp - pouchdb/pouchdb
• Full data
• nolanlawson/tiny-queue
  • local-npm
  • Regular npm
• lodash/lodash
  • local-npm
  • Regular npm
• substack/node-browserify
  • local-npm
  • Regular npm
• strongloop/express
  • local-npm
  • Regular npm
• facebook/react
  • local-npm
  • Regular npm
• gulpjs/gulp
  • local-npm
  • Regular npm
• pouchdb/pouchdb
  • local-npm
  • Regular npm
• Notes
• Reproduce these results

I started off with a small repo of mine, nolanlawson/tiny-queue, then moved on to some popular libraries like lodash/lodash and facebook/react. In each case, I'm just cloning the code from Github and running npm install.

TLDR: Regular npm is faster for the first npm install, but afterwards local-npm is always faster, even after npm cache clear. Sometimes it's even 2x or 3x faster (e.g. 1m15.752s vs 3m50.467s to install facebook/react the 2nd time). This is kind of the point of local-npm: it gets faster the more you run it, because it aggressively caches everything.

Summary

nolanlawson/tiny-queue

• 45.69% slower for first npm install
• 3.22% faster for second npm install
• 16.99% faster after npm cache clear

lodash/lodash

• 34.26% slower for first npm install
• 6.78% faster for second npm install
• 2.75% slower after npm cache clear

substack/node-browserify

• 33.00% slower for first npm install
• 5.64% faster for second npm install
• 20.27% slower after npm cache clear

strongloop/express

• 29.44% slower for first npm install
• 9.86% faster for second npm install
• 15.16% faster after npm cache clear

facebook/react

• 26.71% slower for first npm install
• 8.89% slower for second npm install
• 2.76% faster after npm cache clear

gulpjs/gulp

• 10.40% slower for first npm install
• 6.68% faster for second npm install
• 12.54% slower after npm cache clear

pouchdb/pouchdb

• 8.16% slower for first npm install
• 6.13% faster for second npm install
• 12.62% faster after npm cache clear

Full data

nolanlawson/tiny-queue

local-npm

• 1st npm install: 0m2.392s
• 2nd npm install: 0m1.263s
• After cache clean: 0m2.447s

Regular npm

• 1st npm install: 0m1.299s
• 2nd npm install: 0m1.305s
• After cache clean: 0m2.948s

lodash/lodash

local-npm

• 1st npm install: 1m22.140s
• 2nd npm install: 0m48.855s
• After cache clean: 1m19.177s

Regular npm

• 1st npm install: 0m53.995s
• 2nd npm install: 0m52.407s
• After cache clean: 1m17.000s

substack/node-browserify

local-npm

• 1st npm install: 0m41.307s
• 2nd npm install: 0m26.133s
• After cache clean: 0m49.842s

Regular npm

• 1st npm install: 0m27.677s
• 2nd npm install: 0m27.695s
• After cache clean: 0m39.738s

strongloop/express

local-npm

• 1st npm install: 0m19.571s
• 2nd npm install: 0m13.149s
• After cache clean: 0m16.645s

Regular npm

• 1st npm install: 0m13.810s
• 2nd npm install: 0m14.587s
• After cache clean: 0m19.619s

facebook/react

local-npm

• 1st npm install: 2m30.568s
• 2nd npm install: 1m54.844s
• After cache clean: 2m39.366s

Regular npm

• 1st npm install: 1m50.349s
• 2nd npm install: 1m44.638s
• After cache clean: 2m43.893s

gulpjs/gulp

local-npm

• 1st npm install: 0m40.063s
• 2nd npm install: 0m36.125s
• After cache clean: 1m4.591s

Regular npm

• 1st npm install: 0m35.895s
• 2nd npm install: 0m38.711s
• After cache clean: 0m56.494s

pouchdb/pouchdb

local-npm

• 1st npm install: 2m37.697s
• 2nd npm install: 2m2.765s
• After cache clean: 2m40.102s

Regular npm

• 1st npm install: 2m24.823s
• 2nd npm install: 2m10.778s
• After cache clean: 3m3.219s

Notes

The test is a little unfair, because my local-npm has already downloaded all the metadata, but this is a typical use-case for local-npm. (It replicates the npm metadata on first run, which can take a few hours.) I did clear out the tarballs before the test, though.

Also, repos tested later in the test may benefit from a slight boost, if they share any modules with a previous repo. But again, this is a typical use-case for local-npm – the more you use it, the more that common tarballs will be pre-cached.

I find it interesting that local-npm is faster even after the second npm install, which is when npm's cache is supposed to kick in. This suggests that npm is not caching as aggressively as it could be.

Reproduce these results

First, npm install -g local-npm && local-npm. Then just clone this repo and run npm test. The python script can print a summary afterwards.

Warning: the test will override your local ~/.npmrc file! So you may want to do npmrc -c testing && npmrc testing beforehand.