BitBucket pipeline is not using cache for npm install - bitbucket

Question

I have a single BitBucket repository containing the code for an Angular app in a folder called ui and a Node API in a folder called api.
My BitBucket pipeline runs ng test for the Angular app, but the node_modules folder isn't being cached correctly.
This is my BitBucket Pipeline yml file:
image: trion/ng-cli-karma
pipelines:
default:
- step:
caches:
- angular-node
script:
- cd ui
- npm install
- ng test --watch=false
definitions:
caches:
angular-node: /ui/node_modules
When the builds runs it shows:
Cache "angular-node": Downloading
Cache "angular-node": Extracting
Cache "angular-node": Extracted
But when it performs the npm install step it says:
added 1623 packages in 41.944s
I am trying to speed the build up and I can't work out why npm needs to install the dependencies assuming they are already contained in the cache which has been restored.

Answer 1

my guess is, your cache position is not correct. there is a pre-configured node cache (named "node") that can just be activated. no need to do a custom cache for that. (the default cache fails, because your node build is in a sub folder of the clone directory, so you need a custom cache)
cache positons are relative to the clone directory. bitbucket clones into /opt/atlassian/pipelines/agent/build thats probably why your absolute cache-path did not work.
simply making the cache reference relative should do the trick
pipelines:
default:
- step:
caches:
- angular-node
script:
- cd ui
- npm install
- ng test --watch=false
definitions:
caches:
angular-node: ui/node_modules
that may fix your issue