In yarn PNP the plugin keeps touching cache files, triggering reindexing

[prewk]

Current Behavior

When I enable the plugin in WebStorm, it keeps causing reindexations over and over again. I just need to switch out of WebStorm (triggering a WebStorm save I suppose?) and come back, and - reindexation!

My colleague who uses the plugin in VS Code has a similar problem (but VSC doesn't auto-save).

Turning the plugin off, this problem disappears.

Expected Behavior

It shouldn't reindex.

Steps to Reproduce

I've converted our classic yarn project to a latest (v4) yarn PNP project with zero-installs.

Meaning, instead of a node_modules we have all the packages checked into git in .yarn/cache.

Starting WebStorm or VS Code with nx-console enabled. Change a file and bam - reindexing.

Failure Logs / Images / Videos

I'm monitoring changed files with chokidar:

chokidar "*.*" "**/*.*" -c "echo '{path}'"

With nx-console plugin turned off:

change:.idea/workspace.xml
change:.idea/aws.xml
.idea/aws.xml

With nx-console plugin turned on:

# constant pattern of change in the cache files over and over again, this is just an excerpt:

change:.yarn/cache/@storybook-angular-npm-7.5.3-cb80502f1a-fd51664361.zip
change:.yarn/cache/@testing-library-angular-npm-14.2.0-e1624ada75-e41e72edf7.zip
change:.yarn/cache/@testing-library-angular-npm-14.2.0-e1624ada75-e41e72edf7.zip
change:.yarn/cache/@schematics-angular-npm-17.2.3-1576f57e2c-a350fbbd91.zip
.yarn/cache/@schematics-angular-npm-17.2.3-1576f57e2c-a350fbbd91.zip
change:.nx/cache/project-graph.json
change:.nx/cache/file-map.json
.nx/cache/file-map.json

Environment

• Nx Console version: 1.19.0
• WebStorm version: 2023.3.5 (Build #WS-233.14808.24, built on March 13, 2024)
• VSCode version: 1.87.2 (Unsure of nx-console version there but doesn't matter much)

nx report (also tried on latest nx with same results):

   Node   : 18.17.1
   OS     : darwin-arm64
   yarn   : 4.1.1

   nx                 : 17.3.2
   @nx/js             : 17.3.2
   @nx/jest           : 17.3.2
   @nx/eslint         : 17.3.2
   @nx/workspace      : 17.3.2
   @nx/angular        : 17.3.2
   @nx/devkit         : 17.3.2
   @nx/eslint-plugin  : 17.3.2
   @nx/plugin         : 17.3.2
   @nx/storybook      : 17.3.2
   typescript         : 5.3.3
   ---------------------------------------
   Community plugins:
   @ngneat/spectator        : 14.0.0
   @ngrx/component          : 17.1.1
   @ngrx/component-store    : 17.1.1
   @ngrx/effects            : 17.1.1
   @ngrx/entity             : 17.1.1
   @ngrx/router-store       : 17.1.1
   @ngrx/schematics         : 17.1.1
   @ngrx/store              : 17.1.1
   @ngrx/store-devtools     : 17.1.1
   @storybook/angular       : 7.5.3
   @testing-library/angular : 14.2.0
   ---------------------------------------

[MaxKless]

hmm this shouldn't happen, you're right. Is nx/cache part of your .gitignore?

[prewk]

No, because we're using zero-install so all the dependencies are checked into git.

[MaxKless]

It seems to me like IntelliJ is picking up everything for indexing so it makes sense that it reindexes whenever a file in there changes.
Adding it to .gitignore or manually exempting the folder from indexing seems like the easiest solution... Can you check whether that fixes it?

[prewk]

whenever a file in there changes.

But it doesn't change! You can sit and cmd/alt+tab between the IDE and something else doing nothing. And VS Code also has the problem.

Nothing is touching that directory (as evident by chokidar), only when nx-console is enabled, the touching starts.

.gitignore

Not an option unfortunately, the point is to not have it ignored in git

manually exempting

Doesn't change anything unfortunately.

[MaxKless]

hmmm it makes sense that things in .nx/cache (not yarn/cache) change though. Once nx console starts, it starts the Nx Language Server which does all kinds of calculations about your workspace. These nx/cache/project-graph.json files that chokidar logs are byproducts of that. So .nx/cache definitely shouldn't be checked into git and should be ignored.

As to the yarn files that change though, that's an interesting thing I'm not sure how it happens...

[prewk]

Ah yes, .nx is completely git ignored. It's .yarn/cache that's the problem here :)

[MaxKless]

I've been able to reproduce this and I'll have an improvement in a PR soon.
I'm still not quite sure why the files in .yarn/cache keep changing but I've excluded them from the file watcher. That will solve a lot of performance issues but not the reindexing.
I'm in contact with the webstorm team to figure out what's happening here - because .yarn/cache is marked as excluded, changes inside it shouldn't lead to reindexing.

[prewk]

Great!

because .yarn/cache is marked as excluded, changes inside it shouldn't lead to reindexing.

A note here - it's the plugin that performs the changes/touching. It's obvious if you monitor with chokidar (see my OP)

[MaxKless]

yeah I know. We read the files to figure out what dependencies contain generators & executors so we can show them in Nx Console. So it makes sense that Nx Console is involved.
There's two questions:

• Why does the act of reading the files cause them to change (though this might be just a sideeffect and unavoidable)
• Why does the change trigger reindexing in webstorm even though .yarn/cache is marked as excluded