GitHub Action Cache with npm install -g (without package.json) - github-actions

Question

Can Github Action cache be used to speedup globally installed node tools?
I am using semantic-release on a ruby repository and I don't want to pollute that repository with package.json
My configuration for semantic-release resides in .releaserc
I can run this GitAction to update my SemVer.
name: SemVer
on:
push:
branches: [ main ]
jobs:
release:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- uses: actions/setup-node#v2
with:
node-version: '16'
- name: Install Global Dependencies
run: npm -g install semantic-release #semantic-release/changelog #semantic-release/commit-analyzer #semantic-release/exec #semantic-release/git #semantic-release/release-notes-generator
- name: Run SemVer
run: semantic-release
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
It takes 22 seconds to install dependencies
I have tried integrating cache configuration that I found into my workflow, but this is is not working and I assume it is because there is no package-lock.json to build a hash against.
key: ${{ runner.os }}-build-${{ env.cache-name }}-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
name: SemVer
on:
push:
branches: [ main ]
jobs:
release:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- uses: actions/setup-node#v2
with:
node-version: '16'
- name: Cache node modules
uses: actions/cache#v2
id: cache-node-modules
env:
cache-name: cache-node-modules
with:
path: ~/.npm
key: ${{ runner.os }}-build-${{ env.cache-name }}-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-build-${{ env.cache-name }}-
${{ runner.os }}-build-
${{ runner.os }}-
- name: Install Global Dependencies
if: steps.cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
run: npm -g install semantic-release #semantic-release/changelog #semantic-release/commit-analyzer #semantic-release/exec #semantic-release/git #semantic-release/release-notes-generator
- name: Run SemVer
run: semantic-release
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Answer 1

You don't need to hash a package-lock.json if you don't have one, you can hash any other file or either none, eg:
with:
path: ~/.npm
key: ${{ runner.os }}-build-${{ env.cache-name }}
documentation is available here https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/caching-dependencies-to-speed-up-workflows