Q: `useRollingCache: true` still results in `npm ci`, but `npm ci` removes `node_modules`?

[wooorm]

I’m trying to make a build (mdx-js/mdx) much faster, and am testing useRollingCache: true. It doesn’t seem to do much. Could that be because it still uses npm ci (proof from workflow), but npm ci is faster if:

• The node_modules folder is missing or empty.

due to:

• If a node_modules is already present, it will be automatically removed before npm ci begins its install.

(citations from npm ci docs)

(see also this post by De Voorhoede)

[moltar]

Came here to say the same thing. What is the point of the caching feature, if npm ci nukes the entire node_modules every time?

[d-werner]

As documented, folder ~/.npm or ~/.cache/yarn will be cached. So, npm will first check its local cache before querying the npm registry when you execute npm ci.