npx Gotcha

Hey Everybody! Have you been using npx to run multiple versions of NativeScript? Have you been running out of disk space?

Well today I’m going to show you something interesting I found if you use npx to run multiple versions of NativeScript as seen in this video by Alex Ziskind.

I recently got a notification that my MacBook was out of space and did the typical routine of emptying the trash bin, and cleaning up some clutter on my desktop. This didn't help so I investigated further and found this.

The Problem

Inside of the _npx folder was 272 folders!! Each folder had a version of NativeScript in it with a lot of duplicates (A lot of folders had NS 5.2).

For me the _npx folder was inside of my users/tyler/.npm directory.

Note: If you don't see the .npm folder, you can use cmd + shift + . to show/hide hidden files inside of the Finder window.

When I ran npx nativescript@5.2 run ios it was downloading version 5.2 of NativeScript and saving it on my device.

The problem arises when I run npx nativescript@5.2 run ios again ... it was downloading that version of NativeScript again.

This might be a bug with npx... it should be checking for that module locally before installing it.

According to the docs: Executes either from a local node_modules/.bin, or from a central cache, installing any packages needed in order for to run.

Possible Fixes

1. Corect NPM Cache Path

If you suspect that there might be an issue with the path to your local npm cache you can use the --cache <path> argument to change the npm cache path.

2. Use the --no-install Command

You can use the --no-install argument for npx that will prevent it from downloading a new version if it is already stored locally on your device.

Run npx --no-install nativescript@5.2 run ios|android

This will prevent npx from installing that version again.

If this prevents your command from executing then you might need to update your npm cache path.

Note: The no-install argument must be placed immediately after npx or else the command will fail!

I hope this helps give you some of your device storage back!

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