Checking the Size of node_modules Directories in Your Workspace
Node.js developers often find themselves dealing with large node_modules
directories. These directories can take up a lot of disk space, especially if you're working on multiple projects. In this post, we'll show you how to check the size of all node_modules
directories in your workspace using the terminal.
The Tools
We'll be using two commands: find
and du
. The find
command is used to locate files and directories, and the du
command is used to estimate file and directory space usage.
The Command
Here's the command we'll be using:
bashfind . -name "node_modules" -type d -prune | xargs du -sh
Let's break this down:
find . -name "node_modules" -type d -prune
: This part of the command is looking for directories (-type d
) namednode_modules
in the current directory (.
) and all its subdirectories. The-prune
option stopsfind
from searching any further if it finds anode_modules
directory. This prevents it from findingnode_modules
directories nested within othernode_modules
directories.xargs du -sh
: This part of the command calculates the size of each directory found by thefind
command.xargs
is used to pass the list of directories to thedu
command. The-s
option tellsdu
to only include the total size of each directory, not the sizes of the individual files within them. The-h
option makes the output human-readable, converting bytes into kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, etc., as necessary.
Calculating the Total Size
If you want to calculate the total size of all node_modules
directories combined, you can add the -c
option to the du
command:
bashfind . -name "node_modules" -type d -prune | xargs du -sch
The -c
option tells du
to produce a grand total at the end of its output.
Conclusion
Knowing how to check the size of your node_modules
directories can be very useful, especially when you're trying to free up disk space. By using the find
and du
commands, you can easily find out how much space each node_modules
directory is taking up, and even get a total of all the node_modules
directories combined. Happy coding!