Production Deployment Package

[betimer]

So can I confirm for production deployment package, what it only needs is:

.next folder that has been built
node_modules packages

It does not require the source code. Is this correct?

[timneutkens]

Correct! the source code is not needed, only node_modules and .next

[Janpot]

Is node_modules required with the serverless target?

[timneutkens]

@Janpot depends on which serverless target you use, the serverless target does inline all deps and there it's not needed, however for the serverless target you shouldn't upload the full .next folder either, it runs in separate parts.

[NMinhNguyen]

however for the serverless target you shouldn't upload the full .next folder either, it runs in separate parts.

@timneutkens could you clarify what's necessary? Is it just the serverless folder? From what I understand, serverless target with next start and .next (or maybe just .next/serverless) should be sufficient to deploy? Although I would still need next with all of its dependencies available presumably?

https://nextjs.org/docs/api-reference/next.config.js/build-target#serverless-target

It's only compatible with next start or Serverless deployment platforms (like Vercel) — you cannot use the custom server API.

The reason I'm asking for clarification is I saw #6173 (comment) and although I don't have an immediate need for independent serverless functions as such, I'd like the ability to not have to deploy a big node_modules folder. The quoted text below makes me think that next start with serverless should handle serving static pages as well as executing lambdas.

However a Next.js app since Next.js 9 is no longer "just a server" as said in my earlier reply. You can't get away with only using AWS Lambda, you also have to serve static pages. When #9524 lands it'll become even more complicated as you'll have to know how to route a page to a static file and lambdas for the same route.

[timneutkens]

serverless target with next start

Your application will be less performant if you use the serverless target and then use next start to boot up as a lot of modules won't be shared between page rendering, causing higher cpu and memory load. The serverless target is meant to output multiple serverless functions and is not meant to be deployed as a server. If you're deploying to a server it's better to use next build and then next start where node_modules and .next are available on your server.

[wei]

@timneutkens thanks for your detailed response. For small sites like the one I'm working on, node_modules excluding devDependencies is already at 150MB-250MB range while .next/ folder with serverless build is only a dozen MB with experimental-serverless-trace it's only 4MB. This results in quite a difference in the docker image being built. Is it still recommended to choose server target over serverless despite the large difference in docker image size caused by node_modules?

You mentioned above

depends on which serverless target you use, the serverless target does inline all deps and there it's not needed

and before in 10741

Later on we added another target called experimental-serverless-trace, this target is much more optimized version of serverless that works more like how server would currently, except it's better than server as it no longer requires a full node_modules to be shipped.

after I ran next build with serverless target and moved .next to a new folder, I ran npm install next then next start. It's throwing module not found errors for react, react-dom, etc. Do I still have to install those even though all the dependencies are supposed to already been packed in various js files inside .next/serverless folder? Is it a limitation of using next start with serverless target? I tried the same steps with experimental-serverless-trace target and had the same error.

Lastly, have you seen any other lighter server compatibility layer alternatives to using next start with the serverless output files? I ask because next is quite heavy with tons of dependencies in node_modules. If none is out there atm, have you guys thought about making the next server into its own package?

Thanks so much in advance!