webpack-path-resolve

Install

Install with npm: npm install --save-dev webpack-path-resolve

Install with yarn: yarn add webpack-path-resolve --dev

TL/DR

In a mono-repo, if some of your dependencies are hoisted, use this utility in your webpack.config.js.

//webpack.config.js
const path = require("path");
const webpackPath = require("webpack-path-resolve");
const resolve = webpackPath.resolve(require.resolve.paths);

//If "lodash" is hoisted...
resolve("lodash"); // returns the correct path
path.resolve("./node_modules/lodash"); // returns an incorrect path

Why do you need this?

If you do not use a monorepo, and if you do not use the yarn workspaces, you do not need this utility.

The Problem If however, you use a mono-repo with a yarn workspace (or pnpm), then yarn may hoist some of your dependencies to the root. Whether yarn will hoist a dependency such as lodash to the root of the mono-repo depends on whether a different version of that dependency is used by another package within the mono-repo. It is slightly unpredictable.

my-monorepo/
	node_modules/
		lodash@v1
	packages/
		package-a/
			node_modules/
				lodash@v2
			package.json
			webpack.config.js
		package-b/
			node_modules/
			package.json
			webpack.config.js
package.json
lerna.json
yarn.lock

This causes some issues with the webpack.config.js files. It is common practice to use in a webpack.config.js the notation path.resolve("./node_modules/lodash") when configuring a loader or an alias. But this notation will only work if the package is NOT hoisted.

The Solution

//webpack.config.js
import * as path from "path";
import * as webpackPath from "webpack-path-resolve";
const resolve = webpackPath.resolve(require.resolve.paths);

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.js$/,
        include: [
          //path.resolve("./node_modules/lodash"); // INCORRECT: ./my-monorepo/packages/package-a/node_modules/lodash
          resolve("lodash"); // CORRECT: ./my-monorepo/node_modules/lodash
        ],
        use: ["source-map-loader"]
      }
    ],
    ...
  },
  ...
}

The utility webpack-path-resolve followed the typical nodejs module resolution process. It will scan recursively the following folders to find the dependency.

const resolve = webpackPath.resolve(require.resolve.paths);
resolve("lodash");
// This will scan the following folders for the lodash dependency.
// ./my-monorepo/packages/package-a/node_modules/lodash
// ./my-monorepo/packages/node_modules/lodash
// ./my-monorepo/node_modules/lodash
// ${HOME}/node_modules/lodash