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Description

pnpm uses hard links and symlinks to save one version of a module only ever once on a disk. When using npm or Yarn for example, if you have 100 projects using the same version of lodash, you will have 100 copies of lodash on disk. With pnpm, lodash will be saved in a single place on the disk and a hard link will put it into the node_modules where it should be installed.

As a result, you save gigabytes of space on your disk and you have a lot faster installations! If you'd like more details about the unique node_modules structure that pnpm creates and why it works fine with the Node.js ecosystem, read this small article: Why should we use pnpm? https://www.kochan.io/nodejs/why-should-we-use-pnpm.html

Monthly Downloads: 0
Programming language: TypeScript
License: MIT License
Latest version: v5.5.12

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README

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Fast, disk space efficient package manager:

  • Fast. Up to 2x faster than the alternatives (see benchmark).
  • Efficient. Files inside node_modules are linked from a single content-addressable storage.
  • Great for monorepos.
  • Strict. A package can access only dependencies that are specified in its package.json.
  • Deterministic. Has a lockfile called pnpm-lock.yaml.
  • Works as a Node.js version manager. See pnpm env use.
  • Works everywhere. Supports Windows, Linux, and macOS.
  • Battle-tested. Used in production by teams of all sizes since 2016.
  • See the full feature comparison with npm and Yarn.

To quote the Rush team:

Microsoft uses pnpm in Rush repos with hundreds of projects and hundreds of PRs per day, and we’ve found it to be very fast and reliable.

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Background

pnpm uses a content-addressable filesystem to store all files from all module directories on a disk. When using npm, if you have 100 projects using lodash, you will have 100 copies of lodash on disk. With pnpm, lodash will be stored in a content-addressable storage, so:

  1. If you depend on different versions of lodash, only the files that differ are added to the store. If lodash has 100 files, and a new version has a change only in one of those files, pnpm update will only add 1 new file to the storage.
  2. All the files are saved in a single place on the disk. When packages are installed, their files are linked from that single place consuming no additional disk space. Linking is performed using either hard-links or reflinks (copy-on-write).

As a result, you save gigabytes of space on your disk and you have a lot faster installations! If you'd like more details about the unique node_modules structure that pnpm creates and why it works fine with the Node.js ecosystem, read this small article: Flat node_modules is not the only way.

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Getting Started

Benchmark

pnpm is up to 2x faster than npm and Yarn classic. See all benchmarks here.

Benchmarks on an app with lots of dependencies:

Backers

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Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute. [Contribute](../../blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).

License

MIT


*Note that all licence references and agreements mentioned in the pnpm README section above are relevant to that project's source code only.