Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement • Hacker News Board

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#11

Post by smaili » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:22 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #9

Progress bar or not, npm has gotten extremely slow with v3, to the extent that someone is working on a performance-centered alternative called ied: http://gugel.io/ied/ installs are literally the #1 thing npm needs to do well, and I really hope we see some improvement soon.

Awesome tool, but wish the url was a bit easier to spell/remember!

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#12

Post by yunong » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:27 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #9

Progress bar or not, npm has gotten extremely slow with v3, to the extent that someone is working on a performance-centered alternative called ied: http://gugel.io/ied/ installs are literally the #1 thing npm needs to do well, and I really hope we see some improvement soon.

Even more important, npm doesn't reliably reproduce builds. Different runs of the same shrinkwrapped build could either fail or succeed -- which is odd given that builds should be deterministic. Additionally, shrinkwrap is also broken in the same way.

This is the first time I've heard of ied, a little competition could go a long way!

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#13

Post by rhinoceraptor » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:27 PM UTC

bitwarrior wrote: post #8

...has he controlled for network speed? Unless he's set up a local NPM caching proxy, he's going over the 'net for these packages. It'll take more than 1 datum before I believe this hype.

The network utilisation is much different between npm 2 and 3:

https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/10380

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#14

Post by alanh » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:28 PM UTC

Too wrote: post #6

The funky progress bar is about the coolest thing with npm. They could let it take a minute if they wanted too and i would keep watching it with amazement.

npm 2.x user here. Does anybody want to share a video of the 3.x progress bar? (Easy with QuickTime or CloudApp, btw)

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#15

Post by draw_down » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:29 PM UTC

bitwarrior wrote: post #8

...has he controlled for network speed? Unless he's set up a local NPM caching proxy, he's going over the 'net for these packages. It'll take more than 1 datum before I believe this hype.

Also the second run probably used stuff that was put in the npm cache during the first run. Not sure how good a test this is.

A good read: "Programmers need to learn statistics or I will kill them all" http://zedshaw.com/archive/programmers-need-to-learn-statist...

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#16

Post by morebetterer » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:30 PM UTC

Upon first seeing npm 3.x I immediately added `--progress false --color false` to my npm installs and never looked back. Color and terminal graphics are the work of the devil.

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#17

Post by arrakeen » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:32 PM UTC

Too wrote: post #6

The funky progress bar is about the coolest thing with npm. They could let it take a minute if they wanted too and i would keep watching it with amazement.

you mean the progress bar that takes up way too much screen real estate to the extent that it completely cuts off any useful information from the install process?

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#18

Post by gavinjoyce » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:32 PM UTC

draw_down wrote: post #15

bitwarrior wrote: post #8

...has he controlled for network speed? Unless he's set up a local NPM caching proxy, he's going over the 'net for these packages. It'll take more than 1 datum before I believe this hype.

Also the second run probably used stuff that was put in the npm cache during the first run. Not sure how good a test this is. A good read: "Programmers need to learn statistics or I will kill them all" http://zedshaw.com/archive/programmers-need-to-learn-statist...

It yields the same results in reverse order and also when the cache is primed for both and cleared for both

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#19

Post by eric_h » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:32 PM UTC

VeilEm wrote: post #7

gavinjoyce wrote: post #3

Some further details on the issue: https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/11283

Please refrain from adding unhelpful comments to the issue.

It is tremendously unfortunate that that needs to be said at all.

Re: Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement

#20

Post by miketaylr » Tue, Jan 26, 2016, 9:34 PM UTC

smaili wrote: post #11

untog wrote: post #9

Progress bar or not, npm has gotten extremely slow with v3, to the extent that someone is working on a performance-centered alternative called ied: http://gugel.io/ied/ installs are literally the #1 thing npm needs to do well, and I really hope we see some improvement soon.

Awesome tool, but wish the url was a bit easier to spell/remember!

just gugel it