Webpack v5 Support Plan

[shellscape]

Hey folks! 👋

For those who don't already know, I've stepped in as maintainer of this fantastic plugin. I wanted to share my plan with you all about support for Webpack v5 and how we're going to go about it. To begin, I'm focusing on getting the plugin updated for Webpack v4. That includes fixes, features, documentation, and updates. While the webpack team has had v5 in beta and release-candidate for a long while, it's prudent to wait until v5 has been out for a while and we're ensured that it has stabilized. If webpack v4 taught us anything, adopting a new major version early may end up in playing whack-a-mole in plugins. To that end...

Maintenance

First things first, I'm working to get the plugin metadata and supporting code updated all-around. That includes:

• Updating dependencies
• CI updates
• taking advantage of improvements in GitHub since the plugin was created
• repo management improvements
• rewriting tests for performance and reducing code

Open Pull Requests

I'll be taking a look at the current state of all open pull requests. Focus is going to be on fixes, features, and updates for Webpack v4 initially. PRs for webpack v5 compatibility will be labeled for webpack v5 and locked. This will be temporary.

Open Issues

Pretty much the same approach as Pull Requests.

Documentation

The documentation needs ❤️ so it'll be getting some.

And Then

Once we've done all of the above for Webpack v4, we'll spin up a next branch with Webpack v5 fixes. Depending on the adoption rate for v5 we'll merge next into master and support both v4 and v5, or release a new major for v5 support. We'll see how that goes.

For now, you can follow along on the life-support branch to view updates on the Maintenance stage. Once that stage is complete, that'll be merged to master and the real fun begins.

[kirill-konshin]

Just in case, v5 is out.

[shellscape]

Yes, we're aware.

[brianwozeniak]

I am using 3.0.0-rc.0 with Webpack 5.1.3 and seems to be working correctly. The main issue I see at least with my setup is that I believe the following warnings are from this package:

(node:25952) [DEP_WEBPACK_COMPILATION_NORMAL_MODULE_LOADER_HOOK] DeprecationWarning: Compilation.hooks.normalModuleLoader was moved to NormalModule.getCompilationHooks(compilation).loader
      
(node:25952) [DEP_WEBPACK_DEPRECATION_ARRAY_TO_SET] DeprecationWarning: Compilation.chunks was changed from Array to Set (using Array method 'reduce' is deprecated)

[shellscape]

Please note this is not a support thread for current RCs. Appreciate the note, but we'll be looking at v5 support wholesale, after considering and evaluating previous attempts from v5 betas.

[firsovdevelop]

I have a problem naming files inside a manifest. The prefix "auto" is automatically added. I'm using webpack 5.
{
"libs.js": "autolibs.js",
"app.js": "autoapp.js"
}
How can this be corrected?

[juliusdelta]

@shellscape I've been looking for a small project to get deeply involved with and we use this plugin at my day job so I'd love to assist anyway I can. Just let me know what I can do to help. Is the Gitter channel active still?

[shellscape]

@juliusdelta would love help, thank you for volunteering. I'm not sure about the Gitter channel for webpack, but when I did pop in there, there were still people posting questions. Where we can use immediate help is going through the older issues to see if they're still relevant. Once I get v3 out the door, we'll be more open to contributions as well

---

Good news. I have the life-support branch where I want to see it and I'll be merging that to master in the next few days. Next steps are to address all open pull requests (which don't reference webpack@5 that is). Once those are address/merged/closed, I'll release v3 and we'll build on it from there. Webpack is still releasing fixes and updated to version 5, so it's not yet stable.