Build process & node_modules in production

[MaheshkumarSundaram]

Hi @neonexus ,

It may sound silly, but I wnated to make sure I understand the build process correctly.

As we are building our front-end to the public folder, is it necessary to have node_modules in the production?

I believe the webapck will bundle the dependencies of front-end too.

But to answer my own question, node_modules will be required for the dependencies of the backend (Sails) since the npm run build will only bundle front-end React code.

So, we should have the node_modules in the production for Sails.

Am I correct regarding the build process and the node_modules dependencies? If not, could you kindly brief me.

Thanks!

[neonexus]

So, there are 2 ways to go about node_modules... Leave it as is, or build your assets, and slim down node_modules.

You need the devDependencies installed in-order to build your .tmp/public folder assets. However, after you have built your front-end assets, you can now delete node_modules folder, and install just the production dependencies npm i --production, this will make your production server considerably smaller.

But yes, you need some form of node_modules to run anything.

[MaheshkumarSundaram]

Yes. Planned to do the same. Thanks!

[neonexus]

I'm re-opening this discussion, just so it's more easily visible.