pnpm uses a content-addressable filesystem to store all files from all module directories on a disk. When using npm or Yarn, if you have 100 projects using lodash, you will have 100 copies of lodash on disk. With pnpm, lodash will be stored in a content-addressable storage, so:
pnpm update
will only add 1 new file to the storage.As a result, you save gigabytes of space on your disk and you have a lot faster installations!
If you'd like more details about the unique node_modules
structure that pnpm creates and
why it works fine with the Node.js ecosystem, read this small article: Flat node_modules is not the only way.