webpack-cli init creates invalid path for `entry` unless you specify leading `./` or an abs. path

[nilliams]

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?
Bug

What is the current behavior?
webpack-cli init

Answer index.js to the question 'Which module will be the first to enter the application?'.

Then if you run webpack, fails with error:

ERROR in Entry module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'index.js' in '/Users/.../test-webpack' 

What is the expected behavior?

1. Should create a webpack config in which the entry name has been transformed similar to the way output.path is handled, e.g.

// instead of
module.exports = {
  entry: 'index.js',
  output: {
    filename: '[name].bundle.js',
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist')
  }, ...

// should be
module.exports = {
  entry: path.resolve(__dirname, 'index.js'),
  output: {
    filename: '[name].bundle.js',
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist')
  }, ...

2. Ideally the question Yeoman asks should be more explicit about the input format it expects too, so I know to type index.js rather than index.

3. It should possibly also have a default of index.js? That might also help clarify the format too.

Please mention other relevant information such as the browser version, Node.js version, Operating System and programming language.

$ webpack-cli --version
1.3.3

[evenstensberg]

I'll leave this for the community to decide. Letting users supply path themselves is the most secure, as we dunno where either folder/location is.

[nilliams]

Okay I can see that, however, it seems to be a problem regardless that if I type index.js I end up with an invalid config?

What is the user expected to do here, enter ./index.js instead? Or edit the generated config manually?

@nilliams I think it's better for you to specify the entry with a relative/absolute path.

https://webpack.js.org/configuration/entry-context:

The entry object is where webpack looks to start building the bundle. The context is an absolute string to the directory that contains the entry files.

So basically entry is a file(s) path, not a module name or anything else.

[nilliams]

Thanks, wasn't aware of context, though the generated config isn't using it. Perhaps it should be because:

By default the current directory is used, but it's recommended to pass a value in your configuration. This makes your configuration independent from CWD (current working directory).

Currently entering the leading ./ is the only way you can end up with a working config.

Sidenote on that: Typing a leading ./ does not seem the kind of thing you typically do at a prompt that is designed to make an init easy, (and probably would not be intuitive for Windows users).

At a minimum, can I suggest the prompt question be changed to clarify this, it is currently:

Which module will be the first to enter the application?

Perhaps:

Which module path will be the first to enter the application [example: ./index.js]?

Optionally that example could be the default instead. (I personally would vote for this, for speed of starting new projects, especially if it then offered to create it for me if it didn't exist).

Alternative solutions:

1. If you enter index.js, it will correctly handle it for you, in a forgiving way and normalize that into ./index.js or path.resolve(__dirname, 'index.js') if we don't want to specify context.

2. If you enter index.js, it will 'error' and re-prompt you to enter a relative path.

[evenstensberg]

Actually you just have to type ./index. Context is not ideal, as it's better to default to pwd. An example, would be good though. [example: './index'].

Let's just stick with adding an example.

[nilliams]

Sounds good to me, thanks!

[avivr]

I'd like to give it a try

[evenstensberg]

Sweet! Ping me if you need help @avivr !