How to execute compiled code using the webpack node API? - node.js

Question

webpack node API
Here's what I've got:
#!/usr/bin/env node
const webpack = require('webpack');
const config = require('./webpack.config');
const compiler = webpack(config);
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const os = require('os');
const Chalk = require('chalk');
const Path = require('path');
const networkInterface = process.platform === 'win32' ? 'Ethernet' : 'eth0';
const ip = os.networkInterfaces()[networkInterface].find(x => x.family === 'IPv4').address;
const port = 3000;
// https://webpack.js.org/api/node/
// https://github.com/webpack/webpack-dev-middleware/blob/master/lib/index.js
// https://github.com/webpack/webpack-dev-middleware
const watcher = compiler.watch({
aggregateTimeout: 250,
poll: 50,
ignored: /\bnode_modules\b/
}, (err, stats) => {
const elapsed = stats.endTime - stats.startTime;
console.log(`Recompiled in ${elapsed}ms`)
// How to run the compiled JS ?
})
let interrupted = false;
process.on('SIGINT', () => {
if(!interrupted) {
interrupted = true;
console.log('\b\bShutting down...');
watcher.close(() => {
console.log('Webpack watcher stopped.')
});
server.close(() => {
console.log('Express server stopped.')
});
} else {
console.log('\b\bForcing shut down');
process.exit(2);
}
});
const server = app.listen(port, '0.0.0.0', () => {
console.log(`Listening on ${Chalk.blue(`http://${ip}:${port}`)}`);
})
When the watcher runs the callback, my JS should be ready to execute. How can I do that? There should be something in that stats object, just not sure what to look for because it's huge.
For example, I can get the output filename like:
const assetsByChunkName = stats.toJson().assetsByChunkName;
const outputPath = stats.toJson().outputPath;
const main = Path.join(outputPath, assetsByChunkName.main);
But it's not on disk. How to I read it using webpack's fake file system? Or do I even need to read it, is the output source in memory somewhere? And I suppose I just run it through eval()?

Answer 1

I came up with something that seems to work:
const watcher = compiler.watch({
aggregateTimeout: 250,
poll: 50,
ignored: /\bnode_modules\b/
}, (err, stats) => {
if(err) {
console.error(err);
return;
}
console.log(stats.toString({
chunks: false, // Makes the build much quieter
colors: true, // Shows colors in the console
stats: 'minimal',
}));
router = eval(stats.compilation.assets['main.js'].source()).default;
})
Only problem is that it exits whenever there is a syntax error in a source file.