`dist/` should not be deleted on rebuilds, only contents instead

[filipesilva]

@jvandemo heya, I recently discovered a shortcoming in my starter, where the dist/ dir is always deleted.

This causes linked libraries to not update the project that are using it, since the link is broken when dist/ is deleted. Instead, only its contents should be deleted.

Details and repro can be found at angular/angular-cli#6195.

[filipesilva]

Update: removing `clean:dist' from line 173 and 182 is actually necessary to fully get refreshes to work. This isn't ideal. Discussion ongoing in angular/angular-cli#6195.

[jvandemo]

@filipesilva — Thank you for your note, much appreciated! 👍

I will have a look at this tomorrow morning before work and will keep you posted. Thanks again!

[jvandemo]

Just fo confirm that I am seeing the same behavior here (on Mac).

Setup:

1. generate library using generator-angular2-library in directory my-lib
2. in my-lib, run gulp to build my-lib/dist
3. in my-lib/dist, run npm link
4. generate app with Angular CLI in my-app
5. in my-app, run npm link my-lib
6. import my-lib in app.module.ts
7. in my-app, run ng serve --aot

Scenario:

1. change file in my-lib/src
2. gulp will pick up change and regenerate my-lib/dist
3. ng-serve --aot detects a change and recompiles successfully
4. the web page does not reflect the change

Learnings so far:

1. files in my-app/node_modules update correctly
2. angular-cli does seem to detect the change and runs a compilation, but the output does not reflect the change
3. running ng serve instead of ng serve --aot shows the change correctly

I will perform some additional research before work later this week 👍

Watch recording to see it happening live on screen

[bniedermeyer]

It looks like the refresh issue with Angular CLI still isn't figured out, but I've made a change to my local instance of the gulp file and got clean to work without unlinking dist/ using the steps outlined here. I'd be happy to do a quick PR if you'd like.

[clarkj]

@bniedermeyer I'm running into this same issue-would you mind posting your gulp file, as I'm struggling to find where I should be making these changes? Thanks!

[bniedermeyer]

@clarkj Sure thing. I made a modification to deleteFolders(). I posted a Gist here. Because using del, deletes the folder itself, you just have to set it to ignore.

Edit: I should mention that this doesn't fix the refresh issue with running ng serve. I still need to restart my dev server for the changes to be picked up but I do see them after a restart.

[jvandemo]

I have just released v10.2.2, which no longer deletes the dist directory.

@filipesilva and @bniedermeyer — Thank you for your help! Much appreciated! 👍

I will leave this issue open to further investigate the refresh issue.

[sgentile]

now I get the error

RROR in ../ng-library/dist/index.js
Module build failed: Error: ENOENT: no such file or direc
tory, open '.../ng-library/dist/index.js'
 @ ./src/app/app.module.ts 10:0-53
 @ ./src/main.ts
 @ multi webpack-dev-server/client?http://localhost:4200
./src/main.ts
webpack: Failed to compile.

[sgunapude]

The workaround around i am using is to comment out the code in clean:dist task