Parcel: V2: How to control `dist` directory

[olingern]

Parcel Version: 2.0.0-alpha.3.1
OS: Ubuntu 18.04

---

Context:

I have a pretty simple use case that worked well with parcel 1.x

Basically, I have a server that serves out of public directory where I'd like my build to be placed.

Example:
/server/public/js

In Parcel's previous version, I just used the -d option to do something like:
parcel watch ./app/client/src/index.tsx -d ./dist/server/public/js

or

parcel build ./app/client/src/index.tsx -d ./dist/server/public/js

In the current version, I receive an error:
error: unknown option -d

I've tried finding this option via the README, parcel --help build, and searching "dist" on the repo. If this is documented somewhere, it's not clear and/or buried.

---

Questions

• Is there a migrating guide?

• Can I control where output is placed?

Coming from other configuration tools, this has been a godsend. So, thanks for the ease of use.

[mischnic]

Can I control where output is placed?

Parcel 2 can do multiple "builds" at once, so a global dist dir didn't make sense anymore. In your case, adding this entry to your package.json should work:

{
  // ...
  default: "dist/server/public/js/index.js"
  // ...
}

Is there a migrating guide?

That would definitely be part of the docs (yet to be written).

[olingern]

@mischnic I see. I wouldn't mind opening a PR on how to migrate building from v1 to v2. I'm sure I'll need some suggestions from reviews, though.

Is that something that would go in the root 'README` ?

[mischnic]

The readme was originally the specification for Parcel 2 and unfortunately serves as documentation as well. This documentation should really go onto the website (https://github.com/parcel-bundler/website) but we haven't really setup anything yet.

[damianobarbati]

Is it possible to output the dist directory when using yarn parcel index.html without specifying anything in the package.json?

Otherwise testing the actual http serving files is not possible, there's no dist :)

[mischnic]

It's currently always in .parcel-cache/dist, here's some discussion about that: https://github.com/parcel-bundler/parcel/issues/3691.

With parcel index.html you don't need to start a http server yourself?
If you do want to do that, I'd recommend yarn parcel watch index.html so that you can setup a server in dist yourself.

[vladinator1000]

If you have scripts like

  "scripts": {
    "build:client": "parcel build client/index.html --out-dir dist/client",
    "build:server": "parcel build server/index.js --target node --out-dir dist/server",
}

How would you migrate that to v2?

[mischnic]

@vladinator1000 At the moment, the only way is a monorepo-like setup (so with package.json in client and one in server).

[half-halt]

How about prod vs. dev/debug?

[mischnic]

In the meantime, --dist-dir was added for Parcel 2 (behave like v1's --out-dir)