How can I inject a build number with webpack?

Question

I\'d like to inject a build number and version information to my project as it\'s built with webpack. For example, so that my code can do something like:

var bui         


        

Answer 1

I have two files that I distribute that have the build number from the viewpoint of both git and npm (package.json). I'd still like to pull this into my index.template.html in a meta tag, but haven't figured that out yet (how can I make a DEFINE from file contents or a cmd output?).

For git, I use webpack-shell-plugin to make a file with the git info:

const WebpackVersionFilePlugin = require('webpack-version-file-plugin');
plugins: [
new WebpackShellPlugin({
      onBuildStart: [
        'git name-rev --name-only HEAD > dist/gitversion.txt',
        'git rev-list HEAD --count >> dist/gitversion.txt',
        'git rev-parse HEAD >> dist/gitversion.txt']
    }),

For npm, I add the npm version command ("npm version patch/minor/major") to (1) ensure there is no outstanding uncommitted changes in git - it fails if there are any and (2) update the package.json version and check it into git.

  "scripts": {
    "build": "npm run lint && npm run init && npm version patch && webpack --config webpack.config.js",

I then distribute that using poorly documented, probably buggy, WebpackVersionFilePlugin.

const WebpackVersionFilePlugin = require('webpack-version-file-plugin');
new WebpackVersionFilePlugin({
      packageFile:path.join(__dirname, 'package.json'),
      outputFile: path.join('./dist/', 'version.json')
    }),

Using this template in the top directory:

{
  "version" : {
    "name":      "<% package.name %>",
    "buildDate": "<%= currentTime %>",
    "version":   "<%= package.version %>"
  }
}

Neither "package.name" nor "name" work.

The result is two files in my ./dist/directory. gitversion.txt (branch, commit, count from head):

fmwk/feathers
9cfe791a09d3d748e8120e0628
51

and version.json:

{
  "version" : {
    "name":      "",
    "buildDate": "Fri Oct 21 2016 11:10:12 GMT+0800 (PHT)",
    "version":   "0.6.2"
  }
}