Can `node_modules` be cached if a Node.js version is supplied?

[joneshf]

Description:

As I understand the documentation about caching both in this repo and in the upstream actions/cache repo, the reason node_modules is not recommended to cache is because dependencies can break across versions of Node.js.

If the Node.js version changing is the only reason not to cache node_modules can this action take into account the node-version-file (or maybe even the node-version)? If it doesn't exist, don't cache the node_modules directory. If it does exist, cache the node_modules directory but use the value as part of the primaryKey:

setup-node/src/cache-restore.ts

Line 39 in f099707

const primaryKey = `node-cache-${platform}-${packageManager}-${fileHash}`;

Maybe as like:

const primaryKey = `node-cache-${platform}-${nodeVersionFileHash}-${packageManager}-${fileHash}`;

If the Node.js version changes, the cache should be invalidated and everything rebuilt. Which seems to address the concern the actions/cache repo points out (as I understand it).

Justification:

The current caching strategy doesn't provide a noticeable improvement for non-trivial projects. It'll shave a couple seconds off of a multiple minute build due to needing to download all of the node_modules directory. Ideally, by caching node_modules when it appears safe to do so, the download of node_modules shouldn't need to happen as frequently and caching can save minutes.

Are you willing to submit a PR?

Yes!

[dmitry-shibanov]

Hello @joneshf. Thank you for your report. For now we're not planing to change caching behaviour for the setup-node action. If you need to cache different path, the recommended solution will be using the actions/cache action.
For now I'm going to close the feature request.

[joneshf]

Understood. Thanks for the explanation.

[GermanJablo]

For now we're not planing to change caching behaviour for the setup-node action.

May I know if that has changed and if not, what is the reason?
I offer to do the PR if it's a time problem :)

[karlhorky]

@dmitry-shibanov would also love to see this built in as an option to the actions/setup-node action, if there's any room for reconsideration for this feature request after a couple of years 👍

(more discussion about node_modules over in #304)