Typescript compiler --copy-files option to copy non-typescript files to dist folder

[marcospgp]

Search Terms

typescript tsc copy files

Suggestion

The typescript compiler should have an option to copy non-compiled files, similarly to Babel: https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-cli#copy-files

Use Cases

Almost all use cases where typescript files are compiled into a different folder will require bringing along other non-typescript files.

For the frontend, usually there already is a build system in place so this is trivial.

In the backend however, there is rarely a need for a build system, and thus developers often go out of their way to set up a system where non-typescript files are watched for changes and copied.

Existing npm packages for this kind of functionality are all poorly maintained and unsafe. Currently my only option is either copying all files on any change or writing a custom script.

Examples

tsc -w --copy-files

Checklist

My suggestion meets these guidelines:

• This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript/JavaScript code
• This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code
• This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions
• This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. library functionality, non-ECMAScript syntax with JavaScript output, etc.)
• This feature would agree with the rest of TypeScript's Design Goals.

[yortus]

Duplicate of #15222?

[RyanCavanaugh]

If no one else has been able to write a good file copy script, I don't think we'll be the first.

Anyway explicit non-goal 4 is:

Provide an end-to-end build pipeline

[akashmugu]

This is a great idea. Especially for those who want have minimum build steps (e.g. just tsc) for a prototype or something

[stuart-clark-45]

This would be really handy!

[yujiangshui]

For those who need this feature, you can use copyfiles to implement it.

https://quangphamsoft.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/typescript-compiler-copy-html/

[Mohit21GoJs]

This is a great idea. Especially for those who want have minimum build steps (e.g. just tsc) for a prototype or something
add script { scripts: { copy-files: "copyfiles -u 1 src/**/*.html src/**/*.js lib"}} using copyfiles

and add it to postbuild script

For example my scripts looks like this

  build: "yarn run clean && tsc",
 "postbuild": "ef-tspm && yarn run copy-files",
 "clean": "rimraf lib/",
 "prepare": "yarn run build",
 "copy-files": "copyfiles -u 1 src/**/*.js lib"

[FredericLatour]

honestly, I have just spent hours and hours on a very weird problem just to realize that the reason was that copyfiles does not work the same way under linux and windows.
Therefore, I would not recommend copyfiles especially if your build script is run as part of a docker build (under linux).
=== update =====
Well, after further testing, it seems that adding double quotes should do the trick (hopefully):
"copy-files": "copyfiles -u 1 \"src/**/*.js\" lib"

[kenberkeley]

My version:

{
  "scripts": {
    "prebuild": "del lib/",
    "build": "tsc",
    "postbuild": "cpy '**/*' '!**/*.ts' ../lib/ --cwd=src/ --no-overwrite --parents"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "cpy-cli": "^2.0.0",
    "del-cli": "^3.0.0"
  }
}

[prograhammer]

@RyanCavanaugh babel-cli provides this ability: https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-cli#copy-files

So why not TypeScript... 😄