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

JavaScript

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()

Webpack 5 and ESM

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Answer