For various reasons I'm finding myself in the process of needing to delete multiple node_modules folders from a Time Machine back-up drive. No, it's not how I planned to spend my Monday, but here we are.
Here's the thing: I'm looking at these folders that have like 160 MB of stuff in them, and it's like, okay, that's gross, and then I'm deleting them, and I'm deleting some 17,000 items. That is shocking. That is weirdly upsetting.
I mean, what exactly am I doing as a developer that requires nearly 20,000 files worth of JavaScript installed locally on my laptop per project? I don't do anything that fancy. I use 11ty a lot for static site generation and Fractal some for pattern libraries and then there's basic sass and JS compilers and stuff like that, but, like, 20,000 files worth of script to do that?
I know I'm not the first person to point out that the node_modules folder is broke as a joke but it's really hammering home right now just how gross it is when it's actually impeding my ability to restore data from a back-up drive. Maybe there's a way to tell Time Machine not to touch those folders in the future, I don't know.
Really I'm just having a Monday of a Monday here and this seems like as good a thing as any to complain into the void about.