@hyrious/esbuild-dev

Appearance

Command Line ​

Run File ​

bash
$ esbuild-dev main.ts
# build and run main.ts in esm format

$ esbuild-dev --cjs main.ts
# build and run main.ts in cjs format

$ esbuild-dev --watch main.ts
# build and run main.ts, if the file changes, rebuild and run again
# shorthand: -w

$ esbuild-dev -p:./plugin.ts main.ts
# build and run main.ts, with plugin from file ./plugin.ts
# longhand: --plugin

$ esbuild-dev --import main.ts
# run main.ts with esm loader
# in this mode, --cjs, --watch and --plugin are not supported.

How esbuild-dev handle flags

To make it easy to understand and use, esbuild-dev related arguments should be put before the entry file name. The full grammar is as follows:

bash
$ esbuild-dev [ esbuild-dev flags | esbuild flags | args ] entry.ts [ args ]

Include a third-party library if it does not work natively

In rare cases you can see error when you do esbuild-dev --cjs main.ts and you're importing an ESM only package through require(). There're 2 ways to handle it:

  • Use ESM format to import it, i.e. import().

  • Use --include:pkg flag in esbuild-dev, e.g.

    bash
    $ esbuild-dev --include:has --include:function-bind test/include.ts

Plugin Details ​

The plugin argument in command line shares the same semantic as rollup. The first character of the plugin name is used to look up the plugin.

  • [@a-z0-9-~]: the plugin is from a package.

    bash
    "-p:esbuild-plugin-style"

  • [./]: the plugin is from a disk path.

    bash
    "-p:./plugin.ts"

  • {: the plugin is from evaluating the string, this way, you can not write it as a function (which often starts with function or () =>).

    bash
    "-p:{ let a = 1; return a }"

You can pass exactly one argument to the plugin by appending =arg to the plugin name.

bash
"-p:pluginName={ answer: 42 }"

↑ It means to use the plugin by calling pluginName({ answer: 42 }).

Show External ​

bash
$ esbuild-dev external src/index.ts
# show external dependencies of src/index.ts

$ esbuild-dev external -b src/index.ts
# use "bare" format: one name per line

See the API external for more details.

Debug ​

Anyway, when you get a syntax/runtime error, you can look at the node_modules/.esbuild-dev folder to see bundled scripts.

bash
$ esbuild-dev temp
# print full path to the '.esbuild-dev' folder from current place