Question
How do I disable caching for node_modules in the App Platform build?
- Posted March 22, 2021
- DigitalOcean App PlatformCachingNode.js
I’m a Developer Advocate at Prisma and a user reported problems when deploying an app that uses Prisma to the App Platform.
Prisma relies on code generation during the build process to function properly. The code is generated into the node_modules folder.
If you look at the error that the user encountered, it appears that the reason might be the way that you cache the node_modules folder. It seems that changes to the package-lock.json file clears the cache.
Is there a way to either disable the caching or provide a workaround so that code generated into the node_modules folder during the build will be included in the release?
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👋🏼 @danielnorman
Unfortunately there isn’t a way to disable
node_modulescaching currently. You’re right about the cache being dependent on the contents ofpackage-lock.json(oryarn.lock).If a cached
node_modulesdirectory is available and the lockfile matches, it will be used andnpm ci/npm installwill not be run at all.I’m not familiar with how Prisma’s generated code works, but looking at the GitHub discussion you linked, it seems like the problem is due to a
postinstallscript not being run when a cachednode_modulesis reused from a previous build. Would addingnpm installto the build command work? For example:npm install && npx prisma generate.And just to confirm,
NODE_MODULES_CACHEis not a supported config option.