20 times faster installation times

[jantimon]

last week I created an experiment for zx, which might be interesting for you

my experiment is an optimized node bundle of zx created using the Vercel ncc compiler, offering significant size reduction from 13mb (incl dependencies) to 450kb (with 0 dependencies).

du -sh node_modules

you can find it on GitHub here and on npm here

a lot of users of zx will probably prefer to use a non bundle package but still I would love to know what you think :)

[antonmedv]

Interesting idea. I will think about it.

[njfamirm]

What exactly is done? @jantimon
Can you compare ncc with build system like esbuild?

[jantimon]

@njfamirm from the ncc readme on github https://github.com/vercel/ncc

Simple CLI for compiling a Node.js module into a single file,
together with all its dependencies, gcc-style.

Motivation

• Publish minimal packages to npm
• Only ship relevant app code to serverless environments
• Don't waste time configuring bundlers
• Generally faster bootup time and less I/O overhead
• Compiled language-like experience (e.g.: go)

Design goals

• Zero configuration
• TypeScript built-in
• Only supports Node.js programs as input / output
• Support all Node.js patterns and npm modules

In my experiment ncc was used as it bundles everything into a single js files and removes all unnecessary parts with treeshaking.

It also minifies the code:
https://unpkg.com/browse/[email protected]/dist/index.mjs

The very same would probably be possible with esbuild (see https://esbuild.github.io/getting-started/#bundling-for-node) but might require a little bit more configuration.

I am not sure what you mean with "What exactly is done?"

Currently the experiment supports the following cases:

npx zx-packed your script

npm i -g zx-packed
zx your-script.js

it also works with a shebang:

#!/usr/bin/env zx
// ...

it also works if you import it:

import "zx-packed";
// ...

typescript typings are also supported:

repl works too:

[njfamirm]

Thank you for your complete explanation ❤️ @jantimon

In my opinion and according to the searches I did, esbuld is a better option than ncc and has extremely high speed!
Configuring it is not that much and I can do it.

[njfamirm]

The side question I have is where do you get such a screenshot ?

[antonmedv]

Another thing is zx/glovals endpoint.

[jantimon]

Right now globals is not explicitly listed as export in the package.json of my experimental package.

However that could be easily changed and it is already possible with a less pretty import path:

@njfamirm screenshots were taken with https://cleanshot.com/

[antonmedv]

Looks like globals just import index:

Will be cool to have same logic as now.

[jantimon]

I didn't fully understand index vs global - could you please explain once again the current logic?

[jantimon]

@antonmedv - I just released a new version: 0.0.8

both ways are now fully supported - named and global usage:

@antonmedv I switched to esbuild which solved a ncc issue but created other issues :)

Unfortunately it was necessary to patch zx/src/cli.js as esbuild does not allow top level awaits:

https://github.com/jantimon/zx-packed/blob/main/patches/zx%2B7.2.3.patch

A fresh version can be found here:

• https://github.com/jantimon/zx-packed
• https://unpkg.com/browse/[email protected]/dist/
• https://www.npmjs.com/package/zx-packed/v/0.0.8

Using esbuild further reduced the file size from:

• unpacked: 516kB to 448kB
• compressed: 467 kB to 409 kB

[antongolub]

Seems covered by #722