Config files for esbuild.
esbuild is an incredible tool, that is using command line parameters as a configuration syntax. This is fine, but some people might prefer using a configuration file.
A solution could be to run esbuild through its Node.js API, and use JS as a configuration file:
```js const { build } = require('esbuild')
build({ entryPoints: ['./index.js'], outfile: './bundle.js', external: ['react', 'react-dom'], loader: { '.js': 'jsx', '.png': 'base64' }, minify: true, }).catch((error) => { console.error(error) process.exit(1) }) ```
This the recommended way to use a configuration file with esbuild, and if it works for you, you don’t need esbuild-config: the esbuild module already comes with this JS API.
esbuild-config provides an alternative way to configure esbuild. Instead of using the esbuild API through Node.js, it converts a configuration file into command line parameters, that can be passed directly to the esbuild binary.
The esbuild-config command outputs a list of parameters based on a esbuild.config.json file, that can get passed to esbuild directly:
console
esbuild $(esbuild-config)
It detects the presence of esbuild.config.json in the current directory or the project root (using the presence of a package.json file). The same configuration format can also get defined in the package.json file, using the esbuild field.json` file.
A specific file path can also get passed as a parameter:
console
esbuild $(esbuild-config ./my-conf.json)
esbuild-config doesn’t do any validation on the configuration values: it only converts JSON types into arguments that are compatible with the format esbuild uses for its arguments. This makes it independent from esbuild versions, assuming the format doesn’t change.
The only exception to this is the entry field, which gets converted into a list of file names (when an array is provided) or a single file name (when a string is provided).
This is how JSON types get converted:
json
{
"entry": "./index.js",
"outfile": "./bundle.js",
"external": ["react", "react-dom"],
"loader": { ".js": "jsx", ".png": "base64" },
"minify": true
}
Output:
console
--outfile=./bundle.js --minify --external:react --external:react-dom --loader:.js=jsx --loader:.png=base64 ./index.js
Notice how the entry, ./index.js, has been moved to the end. esbuild-config also takes care of escaping the parameters as needed (e.g. by adding quotes).
The easiest way to install esbuild-config is through npm.
Install it globally using the following command:
console
npm install --global esbuild-config
Or add it to your project:
console
npm install --save-dev esbuild-config
See below for alternative installation methods.
You can download the precompiled binaries from the release page.
Install it with Cargo using the following command:
console
cargo install esbuild-config
To clone the repository and build esbuild-config, run these commands (after having installed Rust):
console
git clone git@github.com:bpierre/esbuild-config.git
cd esbuild-config
cargo build --release
The compiled binary is at target/release/esbuild-config.
```console
cargo run
cargo test
cargo tarpaulin -o Html ```
esbuild and its author obviously, not only for esbuild itself but also for its approach to install a platform-specific binary through npm, that esbuild-config is also using.