TypeScript complains about overwriting .d.ts files that are potentially known outputs

[ORESoftware]

Using tsc at the command line, I got

error TS5055: Cannot write file '/Users/alexamil/WebstormProjects/oresoftware/ldap-pool/index.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.

why? :)

my tsconfig.json file is as follows

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "declaration": true,
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "types": [
      "node"
    ],
    "typeRoots": [
      "node_modules/@types"
    ],
    "target": "es5",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "removeComments": true,
    "allowUnreachableCode": true,
    "lib": [
      "es2015",
      "es2016",
      "es2017"
    ]
  },
  "compileOnSave": false,
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules"
  ]
}

[ORESoftware]

nope, it's not because of the include property, I removed it, and same problem. this is a weird one folks.

[DanielRosenwasser]

If you remove the include field, then it implicitly includes everything. I guess you could consider excluding .d.ts files, but the point is that .d.ts is a valid input as well.

It would be helpful to get feedback from others on this.

[the1mills]

But generated .d.ts files are not input files!

As you can see in this case that it's being autogenerated.

Why would tsc complain?

[DanielRosenwasser]

.d.ts files could be generated, or could be written by hand to fill in for an input .js file. Keeping this in mind is important, especially as we consider supporting .d.ts emit from .js files going forward.

[DanielRosenwasser]

I still don't think the configuration is appropriate - .d.ts output files are being included in your input files which would be a problem for any project configuration I've ever seen.

[the1mills]

Daniel, sorry if I wasnt clear ( i am the same person as oresoftware). But two days ago on this thread I clearly stated that the same exact problem occurs when I remove the includes entry altogether from tsconfig.json. This issue does not have to do with the includes property.

[kitsonk]

As Daniel stated:

If you remove the include field, then it implicitly includes everything.

Outputting to the same path that your input from is a folly that will cause you endless heartache. How do you expect tsc to determine the difference between a generated .d.ts and one that was intentionally added as an input file? Definition files can be both input and output files.

[ORESoftware]

@kitsonk this is almost certainly operator error on my part - I have 10+ typescript projects and only this one is suffering from the problem, and I have such a simple configuration, I don't know what's going on yet.

But as far "How do you expect", the answer is simple..

I have an index.ts file + declaration:true
therefore, tsc should be smart enough to know that index.d.ts would be a generated file. There is no way it wouldn't be autogenerated given my setup.

And therein lies my bemusement.

[ORESoftware]

I updated the original question - I have only one tsconfig.json file in the project and this is barebones and is causing the problem still.

error TS5055: Cannot write file '/Users/alexamil/WebstormProjects/oresoftware/ldap-pool/index.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.

[ORESoftware]

here is a link to the project, if you want to see the problem for yourself:

https://github.com/ORESoftware/ldap-pool

[ORESoftware]

If I do this:

 "include":[
    "*.ts",
    "!*.d.ts"
  ]

then it does not complain - however, I swear I have other projects where I do not need to use that includes property, and they work fine, I am confused.

[hoegge]

What version of TSC do you use? When using TSC 1.8 I have the problem below but is gone with version 2.4:

If you generate output in same folder as input you can get the error

TS5055: cannot write file 'file.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.

This is (off course) because tsc reads also the *.d.ts files. But when I add the option "exclude": [ "**/*.d.ts" ] " to tsconfig.json the error does not go away. That means that tsc does actually not exclude the files I've specified.

[iamchathu]

I also have this issue. I have turned "declaration": true and it complains about build folder already generated d.ts file when i run again tsc

[the1mills]

potentially solved by using the rootDir option:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "outDir": "dist",
    "rootDir": "src",
  },
  "include": [
    "src"
  ]
}

[boneskull]

I'm getting bit by this.

Both cases are valid. I would prefer an option to overwrite them, e.g. overwriteDeclarations.

Meanwhile, find src -name '*.d.ts' -exec rm {} \; && tsc 😝

[boneskull]

(my use case is generating .d.ts files from JavaScript, where those .d.ts files live alongside their .js counterparts; I'm using #32372)

[RomainMuller]

I am facing a similar issue with the following tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "alwaysStrict": true,
    "charset": "utf-8",
    "composite": true,
    "declaration": true,
    "declarationMap": true,
    "incremental": true,
    "inlineSourceMap": true,
    "lib": ["ES2018"],
    "module": "CommonJS",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "strict": true
  },
  "include": [
    "**/*.ts",
    "**/package.json"
  ]
}

And then whenever I try to do import { version } from './package.json';, the second compilation attempt yields a TS5055 complaining about the package.d.ts that corresponds to package.json.

The reason I think this is incorrect behavior is because it differs to the behavior around .ts files: I can include any pattern of .ts files, and the .d.ts files that correspond to them will not be considered input files... but the .d.ts file corresponding to anything else will be. The difference in treatment is pretty annoying, especially as your typical CI/CD or PR validation build will run on a clean tree (and work), but in a local development environment, the second attempt to build will fail in a surprising way.

[sirreal]

I've also run into this issue which I documented here. Quoting:

I'm hitting an issue with is-shallow-equal and I believe it's because the build output is not in a different directory tree from the source files. I've tried a number configurations for tsconfig with no success.

If the generated types exist and the TypeScript build needs to regenerated them, for example source changes or missing .tsbuildinfo, the job will error with:

TS5055: Cannot write file '…/build-types/….d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.

It seems packages/is-shallow-equals/build-types/*.d.ts are being interpreted as source that cannot be overwritten. These are exactly the files we'd like to generate.

To reproduce this issue, do the following:

npm run clean:packages                                ## Clean everything (generated types and tsbuildinfo)
npm run build:package-types                           ## Generate declaration files
echo '// noop' >> packages/is-shallow-equal/index.js  ## Change file to trigger regeneration
npm run build:package-types                           ## !!! ERROR !!!

You'll see the following errors:

error TS5055: Cannot write file '…/gutenberg/packages/is-shallow-equal/build-types/arrays.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.
error TS5055: Cannot write file '…/gutenberg/packages/is-shallow-equal/build-types/index.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.
error TS5055: Cannot write file '…/gutenberg/packages/is-shallow-equal/build-types/objects.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.

The same issue does not occur with other packages where the output directory is isolated from the source directors. For example, a11y does not have the same problem:

npm run clean:packages                        ## Clean everything (generated types and tsbuildinfo)
npm run build:package-types                   ## Generate declaration files
echo '// noop' >> packages/a11y/src/index.js  ## Change file to trigger regeneration
npm run build:package-types                   ## No problem

I've investigated (related issues linked below) and attempted many configuration combinations to get this to work as expected without success. I've gone as far as packages/is-shallow-equals/tsconfig.json as follows:

{
// We wouldn't use this configuration
// It demonstrates different suggestions that have been tried to fix the issue
  "compilerOptions": {
      "allowJs": true,
      "checkJs": true,
      "composite": true,
      "emitDeclarationOnly": true,
      "rootDir": ".",
      "outDir": "build-types",
      "declarationDir": "build-types"
  },
  "exclude": [ "build-types/**/*" ],
  "files": [ "arrays.js", "index.js", "objects.js" ],
  "include": [ "arrays.js", "index.js", "objects.js" ]
}

Apparently related issues:

• microsoft/TypeScript#16749
• microsoft/TypeScript#14538
• microsoft/TypeScript#27436

[leilapearson]

I ran into this issue too. It seems like some part of the compilation process isn't recognizing that it is inside an excluded directory.

I don't don't see the problem if I do this:

  "exclude": ["**/*.d.ts", "dist", "node_modules"]

I do see the problem if I do this:

  "exclude": ["dist/**/*.d.ts", "dist", "node_modules"]

or this:

  "exclude": ["**/dist/**/*.d.ts", "dist", "node_modules"]

The error occurs despite the fact that the files it is complaining about are clearly inside dist:

error TS5055: Cannot write file '/Users/leila/dev/wip/jest-fp-ts/dist/index.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.
error TS5055: Cannot write file '/Users/leila/dev/wip/jest-fp-ts/dist/matchers/index.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.

In my case I have imports set up where src/index.ts imports and re-exports from src/matchers/index.ts which in turn imports and re-exports from src/matchers/eitherMatchers/index.ts.

The first two files are the ones causing the compilation errors. The third file is fine. So it looks like it might be related to how the import / export tree is affecting compilation.

Thought this might be a clue worth mentioning...

[arcsector]

At the very least there should be a flag that allows you to force an overwrite.

[m-mohr]

    "exclude": [
        "src/*.d.ts",
        "src/builder/*.d.ts"
    ],
    "include": [
        "src/*.js",
        "src/builder/*.js"
    ],

This also gives the error although I explicitly only include .js and exclude .d.ts. Still complains about input .d.ts overwrite...