Webpack-cli: Thoughts about version 3.2.0

[oles]

Two things I noticed when I ran npm install when updating webpack-cli to version 3.2.0:

There's now a rather large Open Collective banner being outputted, and 49 new dependencies.

I'm fine with the banner, but a little put off by all those dependencies - seeing I only need it to be able to run webpack to build my project.

Seeing that people reacted to a much less intrusive banner for nodemon (https://github.com/remy/nodemon/issues/1189), perhaps a solution similar to the one @remy merged would be suitable?

[evenstensberg]

Yes, the logo should be removed. For the dependencies, a dep for recursively finding a config was used. Sorry if this causes any trouble. I’ll add a util function for it instead in a week or so after grouping up potential issues.

[oles]

I see - thanks for sharing!

[evenstensberg]

Keeping this open as it's a enhancement issue

[edmorley]

It's worth noting that the use of a postinstall script entry (or any of the equivalents, such as preinstall) means that Yarn's new plug and play feature has to unpack the package (in order to support packages that create additional files in the package directory as part of installation) negating some of the benefits of the plug and play mode.

A workaround for this (which also stops the console spam) is to use Yarn's --ignore-scripts option (either on the CLI or via a .yarnrc in the repo root), which stops postinstall et al running entirely, and is good to use for security reasons regardless (see here).

[AviVahl]

the new deps are due to [email protected] installing opencollective, and its outdated dependencies:

opencollective@^1.0.3:
  version "1.0.3"
  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/opencollective/-/opencollective-1.0.3.tgz#aee6372bc28144583690c3ca8daecfc120dd0ef1"
  integrity sha1-ruY3K8KBRFg2kMPKja7PwSDdDvE=
  dependencies:
    babel-polyfill "6.23.0"
    chalk "1.1.3"
    inquirer "3.0.6"
    minimist "1.2.0"
    node-fetch "1.6.3"
    opn "4.0.2"

:-1:

One of the improvements in v3 was less unneeded deps, and this change doesn't follow suit.

[evenstensberg]

OpenCollective banner stays for reachability. Making logo a bit smaller, maybe I'll write a script for it and remove the dep, who knows :)

[evenstensberg]

npm install --save webpack-cli version 3.2.1

[bjornstar]

Some user feedback here, I'm not going to update my instances of webpack-cli with your postinstall advertising in it. It's very unwelcome.

[evenstensberg]

Feel free to use another alternative, nothing stopping you :)

[bjornstar]

Thanks, your response motivated me to remove webpack-cli from my project.

Since all I was using it for was build this is what I switched to:

const webpack = require("webpack");

const pkg = require("../package.json");
const config = require("../webpack.config.js");

config.mode = "production";

const compiler = webpack(config);

console.log(`Building ${pkg.name} v${pkg.version}`);

compiler.run((error, stats) => {
  if (error) {
    console.error(error);
    return process.exit(1);
  }
  console.log(`Built in ${stats.endTime - stats.startTime}ms`);
});

[AviVahl]

@bjornstar above script is catching webpack process errors, but not compilation ones. See https://webpack.js.org/api/node/#error-handling

[edmorley]

An alternative is to install all dependencies using the --ignore-scripts option. This means yarn/npm do not invoke the preinstall/install/postinstall lifecycle scripts at all, which in most cases does not cause breakage since they are for optional steps. This also improves security slightly, since it stops the execution of arbitrary code at package installation time.

To enforce this for a project when using Yarn, add --ignore-scripts true to a .yarnrc in the same directory as the package.json and commit it to the repository. (I'm presuming something similar works for npm via .npmrc)

[AviVahl]

--ignore-scripts does break things for many projects out there.

puppeteer, for example, uses install to download a compatible Chrome version. node-sass uses postinstall to download pre-compiled Node addon, or to build one using node-gyp.

Using lifecycle scripts to communicate information to your users (when they install the package) feels like an abuse.

[ematipico]

I don't understand. The last version doesn't have the banner. What's the real deal breaking? Please help me to understand

[evenstensberg]

They’re not happy to have a banner asking for financial help for a software they’re using for free and take for granted :))

[AviVahl]

I don't understand. The last version doesn't have the banner. What's the real deal breaking? Please help me to understand

There's still a banner.

avi@localhost  ~/projects/cli-banner  npm i webpack-cli -D

> [email protected] postinstall /home/avi/projects/cli-banner/node_modules/webpack-cli
> lightercollective


     *** Thank you for using webpack-cli! ***

Please consider donating to our open collective
     to help us maintain this package.

  https://opencollective.com/webpack/donate

                    ***

They’re not happy to have a banner asking for financial help for a software they’re using for free and take for granted :))

It's not the banner itself that bothers me. It's the place where it was integrated to. Communication to users should not be done via package lifecycle scripts IMO.

[edmorley]

It's not the banner itself that bothers me. It's the place where it was integrated to. Communication to users should not be done via package lifecycle scripts IMO.

Agreed. Perhaps the CLI could include a small prompt on second or third run, that's only shown once every week/month/... or something?

They’re not happy to have a banner asking for financial help for a software they’re using for free and take for granted :))

I agree that there are a significant number of users who hold this mentality with open source in general, but as someone who contributes to the webpack ecosystem (amongst others) with code contributions (and happily no compensation), I find this sweeping generalisation a little frustrating.

[evenstensberg]

I will change this in a newer release. Sorry for the inconveniences