Webpack 5 and ESM

I think I’ve read every thread on SO and every related page on the internet on this, everything has some variation of a problem

I want:

• To use webpack to bundle my web app up
• To use ES Modules within my source js and have them transpiled down for wider browser support
• To use ES Modules within my webpack configuration

Node 14 allegedly supports ESM, so lets use that

Setup 1

I have "type": "module" in my package.json

then my webpack.config.js looks something like:

import { somethingUseful } from './src/js/useful-things.js';

export default (env, argv) => {
    return {
        // webpack config here
    };
}

running > webpack (webpack-cli) I get:

Error [ERR_REQUIRE_ESM]: Must use import to load ES Module: D:gitUseroowebpack.config.js
require() of ES modules is not supported.
require() of webpack.config.js from C:nvmv14.14.0node_moduleswebpack-clilibgroupsresolveConfig.js is an ES module file as it is a .js file whose nearest parent package.json contains "type": "module" which defines all .js files in that package scope as ES modules.
Instead rename webpack.config.js to end in .cjs, change the requiring code to use import(), or remove "type": "module" from package.json.

OK, so lets do what the error message says

Setup 2a

If I remove "type": "module" from my package.json I get

webpack.config.js
import { somethingUseful } from './src/js/useful-things.js';
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

right…. So lets try the other suggested alternative:

Setup 2b

module.exports = async (env, argv) => {

    var somethingUseful = await import('./src/js/useful-things.js');

    return {
        // webpack config here
    };
}

I get a segfault.

/c/Program Files/nodejs/webpack: line 14: 14272 Segmentation fault "$basedir/node" "$basedir/node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js" "$@"

Answer

At the time of writing, webpack-cli just doesn’t support ES6 modules, so you basically have to re-implement it yourself.

It’s not that hard really, just annoying. You need something like this (simplified for brevity): Just RTFM here https://webpack.js.org/api/node/

import webpack from 'webpack';
import webpackConfig from './webpack.config.js';


var config = await webpackConfig(mode);
var compiler = webpack(config);

compiler.watch()