How do you use Node.js devDependencies in the App Platform builds?

Question

How do you use Node.js devDependencies in the App Platform builds? Heroku automatically installs both the dependencies and devDependencies for the app build and then removes the devDependencies after the build is complete. This ensures that you’re only including the minimum required dependencies in production.

Answer 1

crashoverride October 7, 2020

👋 @Rowno

Including dev dependencies is a good idea and I’ve created a ticket with the team to include this and clear out the dev deps after build to only include necessary deps for production.

For now a workaround is to customize your build command to something like:

npm install --only=dev && npm run build && npm prune --production

This will install the devDependencies (dependencies have already been installed) then run the build, finally will remove the devDependencies.

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philippeFishing October 8, 2020

Thanks for the answer, would you have an example on how to do the same using yarn? thanks
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- crashoverride October 8, 2020
  
  👋 @philippeFishing
  
  Took some investigating but this should work:
  
  NODE_ENV=development yarn && NODE_ENV=production yarn build && npm prune --production
  
  Reply Report
  
  Rowno October 15, 2020
  
  Better to use yarn --production to prune the devDependencies in the last step, since npm won’t respect the Yarn lockfile.
  
  Reply Report
mdausmann December 28, 2020

+1 for this fix. Most folks will assume that the dev dependencies will be in place for a build…… because that’s one of the main reasons you use dev dependencies. I’m pretty shocked that this defect made it through your testing.
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madrianhorning December 30, 2020

I just tried that and got

Your build job failed because it was terminated. This often happens due to resource exhaustion.
Error code: BuildJobTerminated

😔

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Answer 2

philippeFishing October 8, 2020

Thanks for the answer, would you have an example on how to do the same using yarn? thanks
Reply Report
- crashoverride October 8, 2020
  
  👋 @philippeFishing
  
  Took some investigating but this should work:
  
  NODE_ENV=development yarn && NODE_ENV=production yarn build && npm prune --production
  
  Reply Report
  
  Rowno October 15, 2020
  
  Better to use yarn --production to prune the devDependencies in the last step, since npm won’t respect the Yarn lockfile.
  
  Reply Report
mdausmann December 28, 2020

+1 for this fix. Most folks will assume that the dev dependencies will be in place for a build…… because that’s one of the main reasons you use dev dependencies. I’m pretty shocked that this defect made it through your testing.
Reply Report

madrianhorning December 30, 2020

I just tried that and got

Your build job failed because it was terminated. This often happens due to resource exhaustion.
Error code: BuildJobTerminated

😔

Reply Report

Answer 3

madrianhorning December 30, 2020

+1

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Answer 4

tman16 January 12, 2021

+1

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