Ask HN: Why does Node.js start so slow?
time php -r 'echo 123;'
outputs:
123
real 0m0.031s
user 0m0.023s
sys 0m0.008s
outputs:
123
real 0m0.022s
user 0m0.019s
sys 0m0.004s
outputs:
123
real 0m0.578s
user 0m0.551s
sys 0m0.028s
What's your output for: `which node` and `node -v`
On my M1 Pro:
python3 -c 'print (123)' 0.02s user 0.01s system 86% cpu 0.036 total
node -e 'console.log(123)' 0.04s user 0.01s system 88% cpu 0.053 totalwhich node: /usr/bin/node
node -v: v10.24.0
And for you?
When I install it from https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x then I get:
node -v: v16.15.0
And indeed, then the time goes down by a factor of 10:
time node -e 'console.log(123);'
Now outputs:
123 real 0m0.058s user 0m0.046s sys 0m0.013sYou're measuring how slowly your computer follows symlinks
Can you elaborate?
Take your original setup. Run it. Time it.
Now, using `which`, invoke it directly, instead of through the symlink. Time it again.
I guess the reason is that the runtime of node is so much larger than that of Python and PHP. I think the Node runtime is already at > 50MB as a binary.
I don't know how large Python and PHP runtimes are, but I know python is often stripped down to a few kilobytes for embedded systems.
I guess if you preload the runtimes before executing these commands, the execution should be fairly similar for each one (near zero, more depending on I/O).