Gatsby: Unpublished content from Contentful, directory is now empty but not removed, why?

[Steffi3rd]

Hi,

I try to unpublish a blog post named "hello-world" from Contentful, it works well.
But I still have some files about the post I just unpublished as hello-world-_____.js, hello-world-_____.js.map
And the directory hello-world is still there but empty.

Why, how can clean everything?

Thanks

Hello world post unpublished

Hello world directory empty, but not removed.

Hello world files still there...

[kakadiadarpan]

@Steffi3rd did you create a new build after unpublishing your blog post?

[Steffi3rd]

@Steffi3rd did you create a new build after unpublishing your blog post?

Yes I did.

Step 1 : unpublished
Step 2 : npm run dev
Step 3 : npm run build
Step 4 : npm run serve

And that's the result.

[kakadiadarpan]

I think on new builds, the existing files in public folder aren't cleared. Is that correct @pieh?

[pieh]

Hmm, correct - we only delete .html files.

[Steffi3rd]

Hmm, correct - we only delete .html files.

Why???? :(
Even .js and .js.map are not delete?

[pieh]

I'm not 100% sure now, but I would think this edge case scenario might be the reason - consider scenario:
Someone visits your page and our runtime that fetches those files is loaded. While user is on the page you deploy new build (which deletes those .js files that our runtime depend on). Now when user tries to navigate to page you deleted (without refreshing), gatsby would try to fetch files that were deleted in meantime and it would fail with cryptic error (probably just in console - not visible to user) and what happens is page just doesn't load. So keeping old .js files is a way to not break site for people that that started navigating your site before you deployed new version with deleted page

[kakadiadarpan]

@Steffi3rd I hope @pieh answered your question. It would be great if you can remove the content of your public folder and then build your website again.

@pieh In my opinion, we should have this in our documentation so that it's not a surprise for everyone. Or do we have it there already?

[Steffi3rd]

@kakadiadarpan @pieh Yes, I think he answered it, it seems weird anyway. Redirected to 404 or homepage, is not an option?

[Steffi3rd]

For example:

I only have 1 page index and 1 page blog.
Now look my tree... Starting to become a mess... 6 path---index (3 .js and.js.map)

It's okay about one of each... but 3 of each, I don't understand why, even with the explanation of @pieh.

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