How does AWS Beanstalk use NPM when deploying a Nodejs App?

Question

I'm curious about the overall workflow of an AWS Beanstalk deployment. I'm assuming it runs npm at some point to get the packages installed on the server(s). But I was just wondering if AWS Beanstalk uses the latest command of 'npm install --production' to install packages. Currently I have a packages.json file as shown below and would like to insure if possible that only the dependencies are being installed and not the devDependencies.

"dependencies": {
  "express": "3.4.4",
  "jade": "*",
  "restify": "~2.6.0",
  "assert": "~1.0.0",
  "orchestrate": "0.0.2",
  "chance": "~0.5.3"
}, 
"devDependencies": {
  "mocha": "~1.15.1"
}

rgareth · Answer 1 · 2014-05-08T15:30:05.127

24

You can get AWS Elastic Beanstalk to run npm install in production mode if you set the environment variable NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION=true. You can do this through the Elastic Beanstalk web console.

Alternatively, save the following text to any file with suffix .config inside a directory called .ebextensions in the project root and you can achieve the same thing without having to set them every time in the web console:

option_settings:

  - option_name: NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION
    value: true

Note: make sure you're using spaces, not tabs, as it's YAML format.

I found that the time to update new node.js code in a t1.micro environment went down from about 5 minutes to 90 seconds, now that it wasn't installing all the devDependencies such as grunt, karma, mocha, etc.

edited May 08 '14 at 15:30

answered Mar 06 '14 at 22:12

rgareth

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In the most recent Elastic Beanstalk solution stack (64bit Amazon Linux 2014.03 v1.0.4 running Node.js) the ebnode.py script references a `NPM_USE_PRODUCTION` variable that defaults to 'true'. Setting this to 'false' in your .config files will result in `npm install` being run without the `--production` flag. I found no reference to a `NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION` variable, though it's possible it gets used elsewhere to set `NPM_USE_PRODUCTION`. Neither variable seems to be mentioned in any of Amazon's configuration documentation. – etreworgy Jul 25 '14 at 22:52
1

Will this run the `postinstall`? – Shamoon Apr 22 '15 at 14:51
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Apparently doesn't run `postinstall`, but it will run `prestart`. How have they managed to make npm usage so difficult? – Joshua Breeden Apr 25 '17 at 03:33
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Your answer is almost complete though this days as for 2021 you need to use the env var called NPM_USE_PRODUCTION and not NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION. – Kashkashio Feb 10 '21 at 13:04

Edmundo Santos · Answer 2 · 2018-10-26T21:40:47.650

In the new versions of Elastic Beanstalk Node's stacks, the configuration has changed, as pointed by @etreworgy's comment.

You can check the current behavior, by running inside an EC2 instance:

cat /opt/elasticbeanstalk/containerfiles/ebnode.py | grep -A 5 PRODUCTION

It returns, as of today:

        if 'NPM_USE_PRODUCTION' not in npm_env:
            npm_env['NPM_USE_PRODUCTION'] = 'true'

        if npm_env['NPM_USE_PRODUCTION'] == 'true':
            print 'Running npm with --production flag'
            check_call([npm_path, '--production', 'install'], cwd=app_path, env=npm_env)
            check_call([npm_path, '--production', 'rebuild'], cwd=app_path, env=npm_env)
        else:
            print 'Running npm without --production flag'

So, currently, it uses the npm install --production by default.

For those ones that want to disable it (as I was when I went to this answer), you have to create a anything.config inside an .ebextensions folder at your project's root folder (where anything means really anything; node, npm, whatever you want), with the content:

option_settings:
    - namespace: aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment
      option_name: NPM_USE_PRODUCTION
      value: false

Thank you very much, your answer is so easy but solved the same problem for me. — Yarovoy, Sep 11 '18 at 15:56
`/opt/elasticbeanstalk/containerfiles/ebnode.py` there is no such directory or file on the instance. Can someone say where can I see this file? — papabiceps, Jul 06 '21 at 23:42
I wrote this 4 years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if they changed it. I no longer use EBS so I can't confirm, but in any case the rest of the answer is still valid, the --production flag is used by default and you can disable it using NPM_USE_PRODUCTION as seen here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/nodejs-platform-dependencies.html — Edmundo Santos, Jul 07 '21 at 09:24

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 12 '13 at 22:19

5

Currently the Elastic Beanstalk environment runs npm install without the --production flag. This happens on the instance at /opt/elasticbeanstalk/containerfiles/ebnode.py before any env customizations supplied by the developer (i.e., environment option settings) are exported, which means setting NODE_ENV=production in the EB Environment's configuration also does not prevent devDependencies from being processed.

answered Dec 12 '13 at 22:19

Evan Brown

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Thanks for the answer. Definitely good if this were added as a feature. I realize too that the Node.js team kind of snuck that in there on us all. ;) – Adron Dec 13 '13 at 00:57
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This is not a correct answer (at least, today). The way to influence `npm install` is via variable `NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION` and not `NODE_ENV`. Elastic Beanstalk does support this, as I have noted in my own answer below. – rgareth May 08 '14 at 15:33
1

update feb 2020: "By default, Elastic Beanstalk installs dependencies in production mode (npm install --production). If you want to install development dependencies on your environment instances, set the NPM_USE_PRODUCTION environment property to false." – Ryan Feb 10 '20 at 20:44
1

`/opt/elasticbeanstalk/containerfiles/ebnode.py` there is no such directory or file on the instance. Can someone tell where can I see this? – papabiceps Jul 06 '21 at 23:41
@papabiceps I think the /opt/elasticbeanstalk/containerfiles/ebnode.py file doesn't exist anymore in AWS Linux 2 and the functionality has moved somewhere else. Did you ever figure out the new file that this runs from? I'm trying to figure that out now https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72466543/stop-ebs-linux-2-node-js-from-trying-to-do-npm-install – Alex von Brandenfels Jun 01 '22 at 20:00

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 07 '16 at 00:24

1

An additional option is to use npm-shrinkwrap, which has the additional benefit of letting you lock your dependencies at the same time.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk suggests it here.

answered Sep 07 '16 at 00:24

Stevi Deter

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The referenced documentation also states that npm-shrinkwrap will speed up deployments as npm install will only need to executed once. – dhollenbeck Sep 08 '16 at 13:33

How does AWS Beanstalk use NPM when deploying a Nodejs App?

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