webpack-dev-server-restartable

Adds to webpack-dev-server ability to automatically restart when webpack config or server file changes.

Restarts x10 times faster than command line alternative nodemon + webpack-dev-server

Requires peer dependencies of webpack and webpack-dev-server

webpack-dev-server options should be in devServer field of webpack config.

Command line examples

webpack-dev-server-restartable --watch test/server.sample.js --watch test/webpack.config.sample.js --config test/webpack.config.sample.js

Which is alternative to:

nodemon --watch test/webpack.config.sample.js --watch test/server.sample.js --exec 'webpack-dev-server --config test/webpack.config.sample.js'

Options

Name	Type	Default	Description
`config`	`{String}`		Webpack config which includes `devServer` options and passed to `webpack-dev-server`
`watch`	`{String}`		Path which if is monitored for changes - restarts `webpack-dev-server`
`stop`	`{String}`		Path which if is monitored for changes - stops `webpack-dev-server`
`verbose`	`{Boolean}`	true	Enables verbose logging for `webpack-dev-server-restartable`, like [wds] and [wds + wdm] timings
`silent`	`{Boolean}`	false	Supress all logs from `webpack-dev-server-restartable`, including restarting notifications
`fastboot`	`{Boolean}`	true	Enables fast-boot `_resolveFilename` cache

Consistency

Because webpack-dev-sever restarts without full process reload there might be plugins that need invalidation.

In order to achieve this you can add optional function devServer.onExit

browser-sync-webpack-plugin is invalidated by default.

const config = {
    // ...
    devServer: {
        // ...
        onExit: () => { /* invalidate, like browserSync.cleanup() */  }
    }
    // ...
}

Node.js example

    const server = new WebpackDevServerRestartable({ config, watch, stop, verbose, silent, fastboot })
    server.listen()

Benchmark

You can run start and restart speed benchmarks locally:

   npm run test

Benchmark Options

Name	Type	Default	Description
`webpackConfig`	`{String}`		Webpack config which includes `devServer` options and passed to `webpack-dev-server`
`serverConfig`	`{String}`		Server config which is required in `devServer.after` option
`verbose`	`{Boolean}`	false	Enables verbose logging

Example

   verbose=true webpackConfig=test/webpack.config.sample.js serverConfig=test/server.sample.js npm run test

All NODE_ENV variables also applies to webpack-dev-server itself.