Issue using node cache in pipeline yml

[WadeW]

Hello,

I am trying to use the node cache option for the first time, but I don't think I properly understand the setup. 

Here is what my yml looks like so far for testing:

image: node:dubnium

pipelines:

   branches:

      dev:

         - step:

               name: init

               caches:

               - node

               script:

               - npm install

         - step:

               name: build

               script:

               - npm run build

               artifacts:

               - public/**

 (ignore any tab/line break issues, the file parses fine, just me trying to format it in this post)

It was my understanding that this setup would do the following:
1) Check for node_modules, and if it doesn't exist, run step 1 to install them and then cache them. If it does exist, skip this step and just download the cache
2) Run the build step.

I can see the cache being created on the bitbucket UI, but every time I run this pipeline it runs the npm install (regardless of cache existing or not) and then fails on the build step as it can't find the node_modules. Do I need to format this differently? I know in the past, before trying to use cache, I would place the node_modules in the artifacts during the first step.

[Steven Vaccarella]

Hi Wade,

Pipelines never skips steps. Caches are just a way to pre-populate a directory within your step with files that were generated on a previous run of that step (or another similar step). I don't know a lot about npm, but I suspect you want to do something like the first example in the cache docs:

pipelines:
  branches:
    dev:
      - step:
          caches:
            - node
          script:
            - npm install
            - npm run build
          artifacts:
            - public/**

The first time this step runs it will download all dependencies and populate the node cache. The second time it runs, the node cache will be unpacked into the node_modules directory before your step starts. The "npm install" command will still execute, but it should run much more quickly because all the dependencies are already downloaded.