Webpack watch mode 4.42.1, and html-webpack-plugin 4.0.4 with cache enabled results that templates get erased

Given: osx 10.14.6 node: 13.6.0 webpack: 4.42.1 html-webpack-plugin: 4.0.4 html-webpack-harddisk-plugin: 1.0.1

When running webpack in watch mode and html-webpack-plugin configured by default results that templates get erased after some time. Problem can be solved by providing cache: false to html-webpack-plugin settings.

Also, webpack configured to use devMiddleware so actual javascript is not emitted.

Maybe I can provide some additional info? If so, I’ll be glad.

Thank you!

[koen-dev]

@Reeywhaar Thanks for the fast reply!

I started playing with the configuration of clean-webpack-plugin too. I generate .cshtml outside of the output.path which is why CleanWebpackPlugin didn’t delete them correctly.

So for me the following config works:

new CleanWebpackPlugin({
    dry: false,
    dangerouslyAllowCleanPatternsOutsideProject: true,
})

Thank you so much for this! You have no idea how long I have been looking for the reason why my webpack-dev-server was stuck. 🎉

[Reeywhaar]

Ok, so problem is that I also use clean-webpack-plugin. Steps are goes like:

• initial compilation:
  • clean-webpack-plugin clears build directory
  • harddisk-plugin writes build/template.html, build/some_other_page.html
• second compilation (I actually change content in js)
  • harddisk-plugin either writes all, or template.html or some_other_page.html depending whether content changed (like if we injected js with different hash).
  • clean-webpack-plugin either removes all, template.html or some_other_page.html. I am not yet sure what is his strategy.
• third compilation (i don’t change anything, and just hit cmd+s)
  • harddisk-plugin do not emit anything because of cache
  • clean-webpack-plugin removes all (at least it can, but no 100% guarantee)

Interesting how at initial compilation clean-webpack-plugin goes first and harddisk-plugin second, but consequent compilation order is swapped.

So, I’m sure it’s not harddisk-plugin problem anymore but rather proper configuration of clean-webpack-plugin. What do you think? Should I close the issue?