Can i exclude files dynamically from ts compiler? - node.js

Question

I'm setting up a node/typescript server to build a real time application. I have my server and my client on the same folder.
What i want to do is to exclude "src/client" from the typescript compiler when i run the "server:dev" script end exclude "src/server" when i run "client:dev".
I already tried to find a way to exclude files from command line, but i didn't find solutions for that.
that's how my tsconfig.json look like
{
"compilerOptions": {
"target": "es6",
"module": "commonjs",
"lib": ["dom","es2017"],
"sourceMap": true,
"outDir": "dist",
"strict": true,
"noImplicitAny": true,
"moduleResolution": "node",
"esModuleInterop": true,
"resolveJsonModule": true
},
"exclude": [
"src/client"
]
}
but i need to include "src/client" and exclude "src/server" when i run the client.

Answer 1

tsconfig.json support extends field, in your case, you should put the common config in a base tsconfig.json, then create tsconfig with extends for client and server respectively.
// tsconfig.json
{
"compilerOptions": {
...
}
}
// tsconfig.client.json
{
"extends": "./tsconfig.json",
"compilerOptions": {
...
},
"exclude": ["src/server"]
}
// tsconfig.server.json
{
"extends": "./tsconfig.json",
"compilerOptions": {
...
},
"exclude": ["src/client"]
}
For npm scripts:
// package.json
{
"scripts": {
"server:dev": "tsc --build tsconfig.server.json",
"client:dev": "tsc --build tsconfig.client.json",
}
}

Answer 2

The general approach to change the compiler options dynamically:
since fs module can be used in node.js, you could add this util function to your node.j sproject:
const fs = require("fs")
const prettier = require("prettier")
function changeTs(){
// this guarantees that I am on server
if(typeof window === "undefined"){
// process.cwd returns base folder, current working directory
// whatever path is
const tsPath = path.join(process.cwd(), "tsconfig.json")
const tsConfig = require(tsPath)
tsConfig.compilerOptions.exclude = ["src/client"]
fs.writeFileSync(
tsPath,
prettier.format(
JSON.stringify(tsConfig), { parser: "json" }
)
)
}
}
call the above function, top-level when node.js app loads, so it tsconfig.json will be updated. default setting should be "exclude": ["src/server"]. When you are on server, it will be changed to "exclude": ["src/client"]
With this approach, you can even pass an argument to the function, so you can change the ts compiler options based on a specific setting that your app needs.