CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsherokunpm
etienne
etienne

Reputation: 3206

Avoid npm refresh after every deployment on Heroku

I have a Node.js website hosted on Heroku, that I deploy with git. I use several node modules, referenced in package.json; is there a way to prevent Heroku to 'refresh' them each time I deploy a new version of the code, as long as package.json did not change?

Note: this would be especially useful for 'native' modules, whose compilation takes a bit of time; for .js-only modules, I was successful removing them from package.json, and adding their node_modules/ folder in the git repo.

Upvotes: 13

Views: 4892

Answers (4)

Zeke
Zeke

Reputation: 1448

I'm the maintainer of the official Heroku Node.js Buildpack.

We have a new version of the buildpack in beta that features caching support, designed specifically for the use case you described above. You can read more about it at https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs/tree/diet#about-this-refactor

Eventually this will become the default Node.js buildpack on Heroku, but if you want to use it now you'll need to set the BUILPACK_URL config var explicitly:

heroku config:set BUILDPACK_URL=https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs#diet -a my-node-app
git commit -am "fakeout" --allow-empty
git push heroku

Upvotes: 8

Eaten by a grue
Eaten by a grue

Reputation: 391

Seems like there has recently been progress by David Dollar at the heroku-buildpack-nodejs.

In short:

heroku config:set BUILDPACK_URL=https://github.com/ddollar/heroku-buildpack-nodejs

See answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18535675/1318839

Upvotes: 1

Myrne Stol
Myrne Stol

Reputation: 11438

Clone the Heroku node.js buildpack, and modify it to remove the rebuild command.

The command is currently run here: https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs/blob/master/bin/compile#L180 , but that's bound to change.

You can run create an app that uses your own buildpack by modifying the command below to match your own repo:
heroku create --buildpack http://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs.git

Or change the buildpack of an existing app with:
heroku config:add BUILDPACK_URL=git://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs.git

Upvotes: 0

dgo.a
dgo.a

Reputation: 2764

You can add both .js and native npm packages and still avoid the "refresh", (at least the re-downloading part of the "refresh".)

Include the native packages to your node_modules/ directory. When you deploy to Heroku, npm install will skip the downloading of the package. npm rebuild is also run. It will take some time to re-compile the native packages, but it should be very bearable unless you have tons of native packages.

Sidenote: Heroku doc on what Heroku does when you push a nodejs app.

Sidenote: The npm rebuild is needed because there "are mysterious failures that can happen between node and native code modules after a node upgrade".

Upvotes: 0

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