webpack: Webpack - No Output File, No Errors Reported

Please note that webpack-dev-server runs in memory by design. If you want a real bundle, build through webpack.

I had the same problem but i could solve it by require this const path = require('path') and in my output object i add this line path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist/assets')

Im not sure whether I should be embarrassed about this or not :!

• If the ‘Output’ directory (as specified in webpack.config.js) is not already present, its not created and the files are emitted (as reported by webpack CLI), however, the files are not to be found.
• If the ‘Output’ directory is present, then the devtool command works fine and the source file is created.

So sorry about this & thank you for the attention towards this @bebraw :!

I ran the webpack command as well. It doesnt seem to store the file in the directory.

Also, the output properties should be respected and the bundle output should have been stored in the directory, no?

You can supply the writeToDisk option to have the files written to disk instead of in memory.

Thank you bebraw, that tip about the webpack-dev-server running in memory saved me from giving up and switching back to Gulp for my project.

Same issue, figured out that problem related to uglifyjs-webpack-plugin@2.0.1, rollback to uglifyjs-webpack-plugin@1.3.0 and it works again.

After combing through it line by line, the culprit seems to be this:

 devtool : 'source-map', // same for 'devtool : 'eval-source-map'

• Running the webpack command with the above line en-abled, gives no output, even though Webpack reports zero errors (in CLI) and that relevant ‘html’ & ‘js’ files have been emitted.
• Running the webpack command with the above line dis-abled, gives the emitted files in the folder.
• Running the dev-server (through npm start hook) with the above line en-abled, doesnt report any error, the files emitted are not visible in the folder, however the server is reporting correctly and executing the code within the js files.
• Running the dev-server (through npm start hook) with the above line dis-abled, doesnt report any errors, the files emitted are not visible and again the server is running file, executing the code within the js files.

So, yes, the dev-server stores the emitted files in memory, however, why is the command not giving any error and making the files not appear in the folder?

devtool : 'source-map'

Do I need to install anything additional for devtool?

You can use this plugin to force the webpack dev server to write files to the disk!

Encountered this behaviour again with one of the RiotJS examples: https://github.com/riot/examples/blob/gh-pages/webpack/webpack.config.js

changing path: '/public' to path: 'public/' makes it build properly. Weird. I’m running under mingw on windows 10 btw:

$ node --version
v4.4.0
$ uname -a
MINGW64_NT-10.0 IRONWILL 2.5.0(0.295/5/3) 2016-03-31 18:47 x86_64 Msys

@Kay2dan I noticed that you don’t have an output.path. Try adding output : { path: 'app/', }. NOTE not /app/.

I’m getting weird inconsistencies with webpack like you’ve described - i.e. no errors but no output and I’m not using devtool : 'source-map'. In my case it seems to work sometimes with output.path = /app/, and sometimes it doesn’t produce output. But with output.path = app/ it seems to be working more consistently. I’ve only just discovered this issue so am not clear whether this fix works permanently.

NB there are some path relative issues:

1. I have config files in a subfolder - i.e. $/src/webpack.app.config.js
2. I run webpack from the root $/ - i.e. webpack --display-modules --config src/webpack.app.config.js
3. I output to /build/app.js

You can find the code in my style-loader bug report:

• https://github.com/ilanc/style-loader-bug
• https://github.com/webpack/style-loader/issues/163 NB the code on github currently has path: '/build/' which seems to work sometimes (once?). Try change it to path: 'build/' for more consistent output.

As an aside there’s a path inconsistency between output.path and require - the former is relative to root whereas the later is relative to the file AFAIK i.e.

output: {
      path: 'build/',
      filename: "app.js"
  },
...
plugins: [
    new webpack.DllReferencePlugin({
      context: ".",
      manifest: require("/build/dll1-manifest.json")
    })`

Sometimes, webpack fails when configuration has mistakes when using path library.
In my case, webpack run perfectly but produced no output.
My mistake was using an unnecessary slash in the output.path option.
Just compare BAD: no output bundle file created**

output: {
  ..
  path: path.resolve(__dirname,'/dist')
  ..
}

GOOD: webpack produces the expected bundle file

output: {
  ..
  path: path.resolve(__dirname,'dist')
  ..
}

If the target output path is a valid folder, then webpack generates a bundle file, otherwise, will not, reporting zero errors.

So @Kay2dan, have you check how you use path?

@smac89 our hero!