npm-proxy-cache

HTTP/HTTPS caching proxy for work with npm utility / registry

npm-proxy-cache

HTTP/HTTPS caching proxy for work with npm utility. This is not a reverse proxy.

You may find this tool useful if you are experiencing huge network lags / latency problems. Other solutions such as local CoachDB mirror of npm registry require much more work and maintenance.

Installation

npm install npm-proxy-cache -g

Usage

First of all, you need to configure npm to use proxy

$ npm config set proxy http://localhost:8080/
$ npm config set https-proxy http://localhost:8080/
$ npm config set strict-ssl false

Another way is to use it explicitly with npm install command, like this:

$ npm --proxy http://localhost:8080 --https-proxy http://localhost:8080 --strict-ssl false install

The strict-ssl false option is required since it's impossible to auth cached response from https proxy, which actully acts as a MITM (man in the middle). All other than GET requests are not cached, so you still be able to publish your modules to npm registry without switching cache on and off.

Once you have npm configured, start the proxy:

$ npm-proxy-cache

By default proxy starts on localhost:8080 and have cache ttl 30 mins. These values might be overriden using command line options:

$ npm-proxy-cache --help

  Usage: npm-proxy-cache [options]

  Options:

    -h, --host [name]     Hostname [localhost]
    -p, --port [number]   An integer argument [8080]
    -t, --ttl [seconds]   Cache lifetime in seconds [1800]
    -s, --storage [path]  Storage path
    -x, --proxy           HTTP proxy to be used, e.g. http://user:pass@example.com:8888/
    -e, --expired         Use expired cache when npm registry unavailable
    -v, --verbose         Verbose mode
        --help            This help

Why can't I use the built-in npm cache?

Well, for some reason npm cache works not as expected and cache hits are low. Additionally, CI servers which run on multiply machines may utilize one cache storage which you can provide via caching proxy.

Limitations

Works only with node 0.10 and above.

Any feedback is welcome