Skip to main content

Install PNPM and Bun

Introduction​

NodeJS and NPM are the basis for defining the frontend development ecosystem.

Despite their usefulness, their respective performances leave a lot to be desired.

That is why we recommend using PNPM and Bun to obtain significant and tangible benefits with ease of adaptation while maintaining compatibility.

In Netuno, this combination of PNPM and Bun is increasingly being used, find out why:

PNPM​

Frontend dependencies tend to take up a lot of space, where the 📂 node_modules folder can easily reach hundreds of megabytes or even gigabytes.

PNPM solves this problem by creating a central repository of dependencies that is shared by projects through shortcuts.

This drastically reduces the amount of space occupied by dependencies.

Among several other advantages, it also stands out for its usability and output, which is much improved and more advanced.

To install PNPM, follow the steps in:

Bun​

Bun is comparable to NodeJS but much more powerful.

Bun's performance is unquestionable; anyone who makes the transition from NodeJS to Bun will immediately notice the benefit.

Since frontend projects usually take some time to start, with Bun it is immediate.

Since the performance advantage is extremely important for agile development, we recommend its use.

To install Bun, follow the steps in:

Configuration and Use in Existing Projects​

To configure Bun in existing projects, change the scripts in package.json to:

package.json
...
    "scripts": {
        "dev": "bunx --bun vite",
        "build": "bunx --bun vite build ",
        "watch": "bunx --bun vite build --watch",
        "preview": "bunx --bun vite preview"
    },
...

Prefix bunx --bun in the script commands.

To execute, we can use PNPM. If you don't use PNPM, then delete the 📂 node_modules folder and run the command:

pnpm install

Now you can execute and use PNPM with Bun. Execute any script command using pnpm, for example:

  • pnpm run dev

And to compile:

  • pnpm run build

Using this combination of PNPM and Bun in CI/CD, that is, in deployment in test and production environments, allows you to obtain high performance with deployment completed quickly.

Change the execution of integrated commands with Netuno​

On the Netuno side, if you are using the execution of integrated NPM commands, you must change to PNPM.

Change the commands configuration of the Netuno application to PNPM in 📂 config/_development.json, for example:

config/_development.json
{
    ...
    "commands": [
        ...
        {
            "path": "website",
            "command": "pnpm run dev",
            "install": "pnpm install",
            "enabled": true
        }
    ]
    ...
}

Conclusion​

Don't suffer anymore from lack of space with several 📂 node_modules folders wasting so many gigabytes.

And don't wait so long until your project finally starts or compiles.

There's nothing stopping you from using PNPM and Bun, because both guarantee compatibility with NPM and NodeJS.

At Netuno we are already using and migrating all projects to PNPM and Bun, follow this trend.