re: The node_modules problem VIEW POST


So, without reading other comments, let me add my two cents...

I've done a quick check on a typical microservice at work. I got 200MB and 19k files for node_modules. If I do the same with a virtualenv site-packages directory of another project at work, i get 10k files and 550MB.

I have no idea if these are typical sizes, but it's what I have handy. In summary: two projects, both in production, with similar sizes, node wins on files with a x2 factor and python wins on size with a x2.25 factor. That isn't so bad for node, is it?

And that's the point, node_modules isn't that bad when compared to other systems. Most memes were created when npm made no efforts to deduplicate dependencies, and at that time node_modules WAS a black hole. You could exceed 10 or 20 directory levels very easily, and 100k files wasn't at all uncommon. But npm got better, first we got npm dedup, and finally it started deduping by default.

Yet, node has a key advantage over other languages' dependency systems, that you don't mention. You compare node with Java or C#, but it's not at all fair, because Java, C#, Python, Ruby and other languages use global or per-project dependencies. Node, instead, has package-local dependencies. This means that, in a node project, each package can declare a dependency against a different version of the same package. You cannot do that on most other languages, and I've had unsolvable situations where two libraries I needed wanted different versions of some third party lib. Node doesn't do that.

So, yeah, node could possibly do better, but right now, in 2018 almost 2019, it is NOT what the memes will make you believe it is.

Also, if you're syncing node_modules between hard drives, you're doing it wrong. It's the whole point of dependency declarations.


The memes were just to lighten the mood, I wrote the text based on personal experiences and struggles with node_module in 2018, so it really need to improve, indeed. I've never came across the situation where libraries really needed different versions in Java, the language I have most experience, since developers generally take care to make new versions with backward compatibility. Using well constructed libraries you can use the latest version and don't worry about other libraries dependent of that one that may eventually need an old feature. If you experienced the situation of conflict in Java the library you were using was probably not well maintained. Java is full object-oriented and fully takes advantage of its features to build a healthy dependency management system.


The dependency problem has zero to do with OO and all to do with module isolation. In Java, your dependencies are simply "I have this package accessible and can import it". If is on your path, you can import it, that's it. But where you import it from makes no difference, and so you can't have v1 and v2 in the same project unless they took care themselves of using different package names.

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