JavaScript package management tools are essential for managing dependencies in web development projects. They facilitate the installation, updating, and removal of libraries and frameworks, ensuring that developers can efficiently manage their project dependencies. Each tool offers unique features that cater to different use cases, such as optimizing package installations, creating private registries, or managing local package development. Understanding the differences between these tools helps developers choose the right one for their specific needs and workflow.
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Package
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yalc
299,128
6,228
-
118
5 years ago
MIT
pnpm
0
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2,164
13 days ago
MIT
verdaccio
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17,586
760 kB
46
13 hours ago
MIT
Feature Comparison: yalc vs pnpm vs verdaccio
Installation Speed
yalc:
yalc allows you to manage local package development by creating a local repository. It provides a way to publish local packages and install them in other projects, which can speed up development by avoiding repeated installations from the npm registry.
pnpm:
pnpm is designed for speed. It uses a content-addressable file system to store all files from all module versions, which allows it to install packages faster by linking them instead of copying them. This significantly reduces installation time, especially in large projects.
verdaccio:
Verdaccio is a lightweight private npm proxy registry that can cache packages from the public npm registry. While its primary function is not speed, it can improve installation times for frequently used packages by serving them from a local cache rather than fetching them from the internet each time.
Local Development
yalc:
yalc excels in local development by allowing you to publish local packages and install them in other projects easily. This makes it ideal for testing changes in a package before publishing to the npm registry.
pnpm:
pnpm supports local development through symlinking, allowing you to work on multiple packages simultaneously without needing to publish them. This is particularly useful in monorepo setups where multiple packages are interdependent.
verdaccio:
Verdaccio enables local development by allowing you to create a private registry where you can publish your packages. This is useful for teams that want to share packages internally without exposing them to the public npm registry.
Disk Space Optimization
yalc:
yalc does not focus on disk space optimization but allows you to manage local packages efficiently. It creates a local repository for your packages, which can help keep your project organized.
pnpm:
pnpm optimizes disk space by storing a single copy of each package version and using hard links to reference them in projects. This reduces redundancy and saves significant disk space, especially in projects with many dependencies.
verdaccio:
Verdaccio does not inherently optimize disk space but can help manage local packages effectively. By caching packages, it can reduce the need to download the same package multiple times, indirectly saving space.
Use Cases
yalc:
yalc is perfect for developers working on multiple related projects or libraries. It is particularly useful for testing local changes without publishing to the npm registry, making it ideal for rapid development cycles.
pnpm:
pnpm is best suited for large-scale applications and monorepos where dependency management and installation speed are critical. It is ideal for developers looking for a modern package manager that enhances performance and efficiency.
verdaccio:
Verdaccio is suitable for teams needing a private npm registry to share packages securely. It is ideal for organizations that want to control package access and maintain a local cache of commonly used packages.
Community and Ecosystem
yalc:
yalc has a smaller but dedicated community, primarily focused on local package development. It is a niche tool that complements existing package managers, making it a valuable addition for developers who need local testing capabilities.
pnpm:
pnpm has a growing community and is increasingly adopted in the JavaScript ecosystem. It integrates well with existing tools and frameworks, making it a versatile choice for modern web development.
verdaccio:
Verdaccio has a strong community focus, providing a simple and effective solution for private package management. It is widely used in enterprise settings where security and control over packages are paramount.
How to Choose: yalc vs pnpm vs verdaccio
pnpm:
Choose pnpm if you need a fast and efficient package manager that optimizes disk space by storing a single copy of each package version and creating hard links to them. It is particularly beneficial for large projects with many dependencies.
Popular Comparisons
Similar Npm Packages to yalc
yalc is a tool designed for managing local packages in a way that mimics the behavior of npm while allowing for easy development and testing of packages. It enables developers to publish packages locally, which can then be consumed by other projects without the need to publish them to a remote registry. This is particularly useful for testing changes in a package before officially releasing it. Yalc helps streamline the workflow for developers working on multiple related projects, making it easier to iterate on package development.
While yalc offers a unique solution for local package management, there are other tools in the ecosystem that provide similar functionalities. Here are a couple of alternatives:
pnpm is a fast, disk space-efficient package manager that uses a unique symlink strategy to manage dependencies. It allows for the installation of packages in a way that avoids duplication, making it more efficient than traditional npm or yarn. While pnpm is primarily focused on managing dependencies for projects, it also supports local development workflows through its workspace feature, allowing developers to work on multiple packages in a monorepo setup seamlessly. If you're looking for a package manager that optimizes storage and speeds up installations, pnpm is an excellent choice.
verdaccio is an open-source lightweight private npm proxy registry that allows developers to host their own npm packages. It can be used to publish packages locally and manage them in a private environment. Verdaccio is particularly useful for organizations that want to maintain control over their packages or need a private registry for internal use. It provides a simple way to publish, share, and manage packages securely, making it a great alternative for teams looking for a more controlled package management solution.
pnpm is a fast, disk space-efficient package manager for JavaScript and Node.js applications. It stands out from traditional package managers by using a unique approach to dependency management, where it stores packages in a global store and creates hard links to the project's node_modules directory. This results in faster installations and reduced disk space usage, making it an attractive option for developers looking to optimize their workflow. While pnpm offers a robust solution for package management, there are several alternatives worth considering:
bun is a modern JavaScript runtime that comes with its own package manager. It is designed for speed and efficiency, aiming to improve the developer experience by providing fast installation times and a built-in bundler. Bun is particularly appealing for developers who want an all-in-one solution that combines a runtime, package manager, and bundler, making it a great choice for new projects or those looking to experiment with cutting-edge technology.
npm is the default package manager for Node.js and has been around for a long time. It provides a comprehensive ecosystem for managing packages and dependencies in JavaScript applications. While npm has made significant improvements over the years, such as introducing features like workspaces and improved performance, some developers find it slower and less efficient compared to newer alternatives like pnpm and yarn.
yarn is another popular package manager that was created to address some of the shortcomings of npm, particularly in terms of speed and reliability. Yarn introduced features like offline caching and deterministic installs, which have made it a favorite among many developers. It also supports workspaces, making it a solid choice for managing monorepos. However, some users have migrated to pnpm for its unique approach to dependency management and improved performance.
verdaccio is an open-source lightweight private npm proxy registry that allows developers to host their own npm packages. It serves as a caching proxy for the public npm registry, enabling teams to manage their own packages while also benefiting from the vast ecosystem of public packages. Verdaccio is particularly useful for organizations that want to maintain control over their package dependencies, improve security, and enhance performance by caching frequently used packages. Its easy setup and user-friendly interface make it a popular choice for teams looking to create a private npm registry.
An alternative to verdaccio is nexus. Nexus Repository Manager is a more comprehensive solution for managing software artifacts, including npm packages, Docker images, and more. It provides a centralized platform for storing, managing, and distributing software components across an organization. Nexus offers advanced features such as fine-grained access control, support for multiple repository formats, and integration with CI/CD pipelines. If your organization requires a more robust solution for managing various types of artifacts beyond just npm packages, Nexus is an excellent choice.
Better workflow than npm | yarn link for package authors.
Why
When developing and authoring multiple packages (private or public), you often find yourself in need of using the latest/WIP versions in other projects that you are working on in your local environment without publishing those packages to the remote registry. NPM and Yarn address this issue with a similar approach of symlinked packages (npm/yarn link). Though this may work in many cases, it often brings nasty constraints and problems with dependency resolution, symlink interoperability between file systems, etc.
What
yalc acts as very simple local repository for your locally developed packages that you want to share across your local environment.
When you run yalc publish in the package directory, it grabs only files that should be published to NPM and puts them in a special global store (located, for example, in ~/.yalc).
When you run yalc add my-package in your project it pulls package content into .yalc in the current folder and injects a file:/link: dependency into package.json. Alternatively, you may use yalc link my-package which will create a symlink to the package content in node_modules and will not touch package.json (like npm/yarn link does), or you even may use it with Pnmp/Yarn/Npm workspaces.
yalc creates a special yalc.lock file in your project (similar to yarn.lock and package-lock.json) that is used to ensure consistency while performing yalc's routines.
yalc can be used with projects where yarn or npm package managers are used
for managing package.json dependencies.
Installation
Using NPM:
npm i yalc -g
Using Yarn:
yarn global add yalc
Some documented features might not have been published yet, see the change log.
Usage
Publish
Run yalc publish in your dependency package my-package.
If your package has any of these lifecycle scripts: prepublish, prepare, prepublishOnly, prepack, preyalcpublish, they will run before in this order. If your package has any of these: postyalcpublish, postpack, publish, postpublish, they will run after in this order. Use --no-scripts to publish without running scripts.
While copying package content, yalc calculates the hash signature of all files and, by default, adds this signature to the package manifest version. You can disable this by using the --no-sig option.
You may also use .yalcignore to exclude files from publishing to yalc repo, for example, files like README.md, etc.
--files flag will show included files in the published package
NB! In terms of which files will be included in the package yalc fully supposed to emulate behavior of npm client (npm pack). If you have nested .yalc folder in your package that you are going to publish with yalc and you use package.jsonfiles list, it should be included there explicitly.
NB! Windows users should make sure the LF new line symbol is used in published sources; it may be needed for some packages to work correctly (for example, bin scripts). yalc won't convert line endings for you (because npm and yarn won't either).
NB! Note that, if you want to include .yalc folder in published package content, you should add !.yalc line to .npmignore.
Yalc by default resolve workspace: protocol in dependencies, to omit this use -no-workspace-resolve flag
Add
Run yalc add my-package in your dependent project, which
will copy the current version from the store to your project's .yalc folder and inject a file:.yalc/my-package dependency into package.json.
You may specify a particular version with yalc add my-package@version. This version will be fixed in yalc.lock and will not affect newly published versions during updates.
Use the --link option to add a link: dependency instead of file:.
Use the --dev option to add yalc package to dev dependencies.
With --pure flag it will not touch package.json file, nor it will touch modules folder, this is useful for example when working with Yarn workspaces (read below in Advanced usage section)
With --workspace (or -W) it will add dependency with "workspace:" protocol.
Link
As an alternative to add, you can use the link command which is similar to npm/yarn link, except that the symlink source will be not the global link directory but the local .yalc folder of your project.
After yalc copies package content to .yalc folder it will create a symlink:
project/.yalc/my-package ==> project/node_modules/my-package. It will not touch package.json in this case.
Update
Run yalc update my-package to update the latest version from store.
Run yalc update to update all the packages found in yalc.lock.
preyalc and postyalc scripts will be executed in target package on add/update operations which are performed while push
if need to perform pre/post scripts on update of particular package use (pre|post)yalc.package-name name for script in your package.json.
update --update (--upgrade, --up) to run package managers's update command for packages.
Remove
Run yalc remove my-package, it will remove package info from package.json and yalc.lock
Run yalc remove --all to remove all packages from project.
Installations
Run yalc installations clean my-package to unpublish a package published with yalc publish
Run yalc installations show my-package to show all packages to which my-package has been installed.
Advanced usage
Pushing updates automatically to all installations
When you run yalc add|link|update, the project's package locations are tracked and saved, so yalc knows where each package in the store is being used in your local environment.
yalc publish --push will publish your package to the store and propagate all changes to existing yalc package installations (this will actually do update operation on the location).
yalc push - is a use shortcut command for push operation (which will likely become your primarily used command for publication):
scripts options is false by default, so it won't run pre/post scripts (may change this with passing --scripts flag).
With --changed flag yalc will first check if package content has changed before publishing and pushing, it is a quick operation and may be useful for file watching scenarios with pushing on changes.
Use --replace option to force replacement of package content.
Use preyalc and postyalc (read in update docs) to execute needed script on every push.
Use --update to run yarn/npm/pnpm update command for pushed packages.
Keep it out of git
If you are using yalc'ed modules temporarily during development, first add .yalc and yalc.lock to .gitignore.
Use yalc link, that won't touch package.json
If you use yalc add it will change package.json, and ads file:/link: dependencies, if you may want to use yalc check in the precommit hook which will check package.json for yalc'ed dependencies and exits with an error if you forgot to remove them.
Keep it in git
You may want to keep shared yalc'ed stuff within the projects you are working on and treat it as a part of the project's codebase. This may really simplify management and usage of shared work in progress packages within your projects and help to make things consistent. So, then just do it, keep .yalc folder and yalc.lock in git.
Replace it with published versions from remote repository when ready.
NB! - standard non-code files like README, LICENCE etc. will be included also, so you may want to exclude them in .gitignore with a line like **/.yalc/**/*.md or you may use .yalcignore not to include those files in package content.
Publish/push sub-projects
Useful for monorepos (projects with multiple sub-projects/packages): yalc publish some-project will perform publish operation in the ./some-project directory relative to process.cwd()
Retreat and Restore
Instead of completely removing package you may temporary set it back with yalc retreat [--all] for example before package publication to remote registry.
After or later restore it with yalc restore.
Use with Yarn/Pnpm workspaces
Use if you will try to add repo in workspaces enabled package, --pure option will be used by default, so package.json and modules folder will not be touched.
Then you add yalc'ed package folder to workspaces in package.json (you may just add .yalc/* and .yalc/@*/* patterns). While update (or push) operation, packages content will be updated automatically and yarn will care about everything else.
If you want to override default pure behavior use --no-pure flag.
Clean up installations file
While working with yalc for some time on the dev machine you may face the situation when you have locations where you added yalc'ed packages being removed from file system, and this will cause some warning messages when yalc will try to push package to removed location. To get rid of such messages, there is an explicit command for this: yalc installations clean [package].
Override default package store folder
You may use --store-folder flag option to override default location for storing published packages.
Control output
Use --quiet to fully disable output (except of errors). Use --no-colors to disable colors.
Set default options via .yalcrc
For example add workspace-resolve=false line to the .yalcrc file to turn off workspace: protocol resolution or sig=false to disable package version hash signature.
