assets:compile doesn't respect NODE_ENV

[y310]

It seems that NODE_ENV=development bundle exec rails assets:precompile ignores NODE_ENV environment variable.

In order to confirm the problem, I added simple debug code to config/webpack/production.js

+if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production') {
+  throw 'NODE_ENV: ' + process.env.NODE_ENV;
+}
 process.env.NODE_ENV = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'production'

And here is the result.

/Users/mito/work/webpacker-test% NODE_ENV=development bundle exec rails assets:precompile
yarn install v1.5.1
[1/4] 🔍  Resolving packages...
success Already up-to-date.
✨  Done in 1.25s.
Webpacker is installed 🎉 🍰
Using /Users/mito/work/webpacker-test/config/webpacker.yml file for setting up webpack paths
Compiling…
Compilation failed:


/Users/mito/work/webpacker-test/config/webpack/production.js:2
  throw 'NODE_ENV: ' + process.env.NODE_ENV;
  ^
NODE_ENV: production

In spite of NODE_ENV=development, process.env.NODE_ENV is production.
Probably, it's caused by this line https://github.com/rails/webpacker/blob/master/lib/tasks/webpacker/compile.rake#L24

This is a repository which includes the reproducing code.
https://github.com/y310/webpacker-test

[gauravtiwari]

@y310 Thanks, ahh yes. The idea was to align with Sprockets assets:precompile so webpacker:compile always compiles in production mode. You could use NODE_ENV=development ./bin/webpack

Anyway would be good to know your use case?

[y310]

My case is a bit irregular... I run assets:precompile in CI to stabilize poltergeist and since my config/webpack/production.js relies on real production env, it throws an exception (I expected that config/webpack/development.js is executed but not the case)

If assets:precompile is made only for production env, I'd like to find other solutions for my problem.

[y310]

I'm going to close this issue since this behavior seems like a spec rather than bug.

[ernsheong]

I want to run NODE_ENV=staging and use that to point my bundle to a different API endpoint used in staging vs production. That is my use case, and it seems odd that assets:precompile does not honour NODE_ENV.

[rubendinho]

@gauravtiwari - We have spent hours debugging the above bug, since it directly contradicts the Custom Rails Environments instructions for this gem, which state that NODE_ENV can force assets:compile to compile in development mode:

# compiles in production mode by default unless NODE_ENV is specified
bundle exec rails assets:precompile
bundle exec rails webpacker:compile

If one has to use assets:precompile, is it possible to compile in development mode?

[csalvato]

Here's our use case:

We have a bug in one of our projects that is only appearing in production, but not in our dev environments. It likely has to do with the order of imports/compilation, and we wanted to debug that.

When debugging that, we wanted to compare a dev compile to a prod compile. We wound up going in circles just trying to figure out that NODE_ENV was not respected, and then trying to figure out why it wasn't (since the docs here say it should be:

https://github.com/rails/webpacker#custom-rails-environments

🤔

Running NODE_ENV=development ./bin/webpack throws an error:

$ NODE_ENV=development ./bin/webpack                                                                              1 ↵
module.js:491
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Cannot find module 'eslint-friendly-formatter'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:489:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:517:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/username/path/to/project/config/webpack/loaders/eslint.js:8:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:573:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:584:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:507:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:470:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:462:3)

So now we would have to debug or workaround that and the rabbit hole deepens...

[gauravtiwari]

Let's address this one properly, the idea earlier was to align with sprockets behaviour but seems like it's much more complicated in Webpacker's case.

@csalvato What happens if you run yarn install? I guess since yarn install is being run in production mode it's stripping off all the dev dependencies. Btw, what environment is this - CI?

[jakeNiemiec]

@csalvato Can you double check that eslint-friendly-formatter is not under devDependancies in your package.json file? If so, try to move it to dependancies or make sure it is not include in production code (at require (internal/module.js:11:18)). More discussion of that in #1212

seems like it's much more complicated in Webpacker's case

I don't think webpack will ever fit nicely in a sprokets-sized hole. There will always be friction from those who expected webpack flows and those who expected sprokets flows...it's all about listening to user expectations. In this case, I don't think users expect (or want) webpackER to ignore the system-set NODE_ENV.

[csalvato]

@csalvato What happens if you run yarn install? I guess since yarn install is being run in production mode it's stripping off all the dev dependencies. Btw, what environment is this - CI?

@gauravtiwari This is the output:

$ yarn install
yarn install v1.10.0
[1/5] 🔍  Validating package.json...
[2/5] 🔍  Resolving packages...
[3/5] 🚚  Fetching packages...
[4/5] 🔗  Linking dependencies...
warning "@rails/webpacker > postcss-cssnext@3.1.0" has unmet peer dependency "caniuse-lite@^1.0.30000697".
warning " > at.js@1.5.3" has incorrect peer dependency "jquery@^1.7.0".
warning " > pdfjs-dist@2.0.428" has unmet peer dependency "webpack@^2.0.0 || ^3.0.0".
warning "pdfjs-dist > worker-loader@1.1.1" has unmet peer dependency "webpack@^2.0.0 || ^3.0.0 || ^4.0.0".
warning " > rails-erb-loader@5.2.1" has unmet peer dependency "webpack@^2.0.0 || >= 3.0.0-rc.0 || ^3.0.0".
warning " > vue-loader@13.7.3" has unmet peer dependency "css-loader@*".
warning " > karma-webpack@2.0.6" has unmet peer dependency "webpack@^1.0.0 || ^2.0.0 || ^3.0.0".
warning "karma-webpack > webpack-dev-middleware@1.12.2" has unmet peer dependency "webpack@^1.0.0 || ^2.0.0 || ^3.0.0".
warning " > webpack-dev-server@2.11.2" has unmet peer dependency "webpack@^2.2.0 || ^3.0.0".
[5/5] 📃  Building fresh packages...
✨  Done in 31.92s.

Btw, what environment is this - CI?

Local dev environment. Not CI.

@csalvato Can you double check that eslint-friendly-formatter is not under devDependancies in your package.json file? If so, try to move it to dependancies or make sure it is not include in production code (at require (internal/module.js:11:18)). More discussion of that in #1212

Moving it to dependencies enabled NODE_ENV=development ./bin/webpack to work, and compiled the dev version 👍

[jakeNiemiec]

@gauravtiwari I feel like this is a sufficiently reoccurring misconception that may justify a small warning in the README.md.

I have created a PR to add a small section about this to docs/yarn.md: #1880

[quinn]

Yeah, this is very misleading in the docs, if you run:

RAILS_ENV=staging bundle exec rails assets:precompile

This will load config/webpack/production.js

There is no way to assets:precompile against anything other than config/webpack/production.js because it is hard-coded to 'production' in https://github.com/rails/webpacker/blob/master/lib/tasks/webpacker/compile.rake#L22