Run-node-webpack-plugin NPM

Run Node Webpack Plugin

Webpack plugin that starts a node.js script after webpack compilation and smartly restarts it after subsequent recompilations

Installation

$ npm install run-node-webpack-plugin --save-dev

Usage

webpack.config.js

const RunNodeWebpackPlugin = require('run-node-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
    // ...
    plugins: [
        new RunNodeWebpackPlugin()
    ],
    // ...
};

Plugin's primary use case is when you are developing a node.js app with webpack and want that app to restart whenever webpack finishes compiling its bundle.

Advantages

More efficient in webpack development scenarios than nodemon, pm2, forever, etc.
Contrary to other similar plugins can restart script only when an actual change in webpack bundle occurs
Rich customization possible via plugin options

Options

All the options are optional and are configured so that in most cases you should not want to change them.

`scriptToRun: string`

Node script which will be run after webpack compilations. You can provide a file name from webpack output or path to an external file.

Default: By default when webpack config contains only one output file then that file will be run. If more files are present then file named server.js or index.js (whichever exists) will be run

Examples

// ...
entry: {
    server: 'src/server.js',
    otherScript: 'src/otherScript.js'
},
output: {
    path: 'build',
    filename: '[name].js'
},
// ...
plugins: [
    new RunNodeWebpackPlugin({ scriptToRun: 'otherScript.js' })
],
// ...

In this example by default server.js would be run but you can change it to otherScript.js.

// ...
entry: 'src/index.js',
output: {
    path: 'build',
    filename: 'webpackOutputScript.js'
},
// ...
plugins: [
    new RunNodeWebpackPlugin({ scriptToRun: './path/to/external/file.js' })
],
// ...

In this example by default webpackOutputScript.js would be run but you can change it to an external script not connected with webpack build process, for example: ./path/to/external/file.js.

`runOnlyOnChanges: boolean`

When set to true plugin will run the script only when an actual change in webpack output files happens, otherwise after every webpack compilation.

Default: true

`scriptsToWatch: string[]`

Array of webpack ouput file names that plugin should watch for changes. Works only if runOnlyOnChanges is set to true.

Default: By default plugin watches all webpack output files

Examples

// ...
entry: {
    server: 'src/server.js',
    script: 'src/script.js'
},
output: {
    path: 'build',
    filename: '[name].js'
},
// ...
plugins: [
    new RunNodeWebpackPlugin({ scriptsToWatch: ['server.js'] })
],
// ...

In this example by default plugin would run server.js whenever a change to server.js or script.js happens but you can exclude script.js from change detection by providing only server.js to scriptsToWatch option.