We welcome contributions from the community and have gathered guidelines here to help you get started.
While not absolutely required, it is encouraged that you first open an issue for any bug or feature request. This allows discussion on the proper course of action to take before coding begins.
yarn install
yarn build
Most of the information you need to contribute code changes can be found here. In short: fork, make your changes, and submit a pull request.
This project makes use of 2 integration test packs to make sure we don't break anything. That's right, count them, 2! There is a comparison test pack which compares compilation outputs and is long established. There is also an execution test pack which executes the compiled JavaScript. This test pack is young and contains fewer tests; but it shows promise.
You can run all the tests (in both test packs) with yarn test
.
To run comparison tests alone use yarn run comparison-tests
.
To run execution tests alone use yarn run execution-tests
.
Not all bugs/features necessarily fit into either framework and that's OK. However, most do and therefore you should make every effort to create at least one test which demonstrates the issue or exercises the feature. Use your judgement to decide whether you think a comparison test or an execution test is most appropriate.
To read about the comparison test pack take a look here To read about the execution test pack take a look here
If you’re using VS Code, set breakpoints anywhere in src
. Open any file inside the comparison test or execution test you want to debug, then, in the debug pane, select “Run open comparison test” or “Run open execution test.”
If you’re not using VS Code, simply adding --debug
to either a yarn run comparison-tests
or yarn run execution-tests
will pause before each test (this is best combined with --single-test
), allowing you to attach to the node process on port 5858 with your favorite debugger.
node --inspect-brk node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --config webpack.dev.js # Obviously configure this depending upon your project setup
Then put a breakpoint in node_modules/ts-loader/dist/index.js
, and debug in VS Code with "Attach to Node Process". The dist is JS compiled from TS, but it’s still pretty readable.
Just like the steps above, except substituting a local copy of ts-loader for the one in node_modules:
- In
ts-loader
, runyarn build
- Still in
ts-loader
, runnpm link
- In your own Webpack project directory, run
npm link ts-loader
. There’s now a chain of symlinks fromnode_modules/ts-loader
to your cloned copy built from source. - Repeat the steps above in “Debugging ts-loader installed from npm...” except now, you can take advantage of source maps, so you can set breakpoints in
ts-loader/src
instead ofts-loader/dist
. - If you want to try making changes to
ts-loader
, make changes and then repeat steps 1 and 4—no need to re-run thenpm link
steps. - Run
npm unlink ts-loader
in your own project directory to remove the symlink when you’re done.
To investigate slowdowns in build times, it's often helpful to profile webpack & ts-loader.
- Start webpack with a debugger attached (see debugging steps above)
- Identify the reproducible user scenario that is experiencing slowdowns
- In Chrome, open
chrome:https://inspect
and inspect the running webpack instance Note: Utilizing Chromium instead of Chrome sometimes yields better results. If any of the following steps fail or cause a crash, try switching from Chrome to Chromium. - Switch to the Profiling Tab
- Start Recording
- Kick off the scenario that's known to be slow
- Stop Recording once the scenario is complete
At this point you should see a list of function calls. There are three distinct views that are useful & you can swap between them to get slightly different views of the problem.
Chart View
The chart view will provide a flame chart of all profiled function calls over time. This can be useful to visualize expensive functions and blocks of high CPU, but can be difficult to read when there are deep call stacks (or flames).
Heavy View
Heavy view shows the time that functions took to execute themselves (self time) & the functions they call (total time). When expanding individual calls, you will be able to see the functions that called this function & effectively walk up the recorded stack traces.
Tree View
Tree view shows the same information as heavy view, but visualizes calls in a top-town manner. This can be useful to track down a single call pattern that is expensive but is less useful when there are deep stack traces.