Error "Cannot write file ... because it would overwrite input file."

[ChrisMBarr]

TypeScript Version: 2.2.1

When using Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 I am getting hundreds of errors in the error list like:

Cannot write file 'C:/{{my-project}}/node_modules/buffer-shims/index.js' because it would overwrite input file.

It looks like this all the time. It doesn't actually prevent building, and everything works just fine, but the error list is distracting and difficult to locate "real" errors when they occur.

My tsconfig.json file

{
  "compileOnSave": true,
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "removeComments": true,
    "sourceMap": true,
    "target": "ES5",
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "strictNullChecks": true,
    "allowUnreachableCode": false,
    "allowUnusedLabels": false,
    "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true,
    "noImplicitReturns": true,
    "noImplicitThis": true,
    "noUnusedLocals": true,
    "noUnusedParameters": true,
    
    "typeRoots": [],
    "types": [] //Explicitly specify an empty array so that the TS2 @types modules are not acquired since we aren't ready for them yet.
  },
  "exclude": ["node_modules"]
}

How can I get rid of all these errors?

(I've also posted this question on StackOverflow with no responses yet)

[leovo2708]

I also get same problem.

[mhegazy]

is --allowjs set? can you share the project?

[ChrisMBarr]

Sorry, I cannot share the project, and no that flag is not set. My tsconfig.json is above, and we just use that with VS2015 Update 3, which just triggers the build with MSBuild normally.

I have teammates complaining about the same issue happening to them on the same projects. I also work on a project at home on a different computer that has the exact same issue & the same setup (TS 2.2.1, VS2015 U3, etc.)

[mhegazy]

do you see the same behavior if you create a bare-bones project with the same configurations?

[Hotell]

We have the same problem wc-catalogue/blaze-elements#299 although with type definitions write access

[mhegazy]

@Hotell do you see this without "awesome-typescript-loader"? can you share repro steps with me?

[Hotell]

yup, as you can see in the issue the output is from running raw tsc second time.

just clone the repo https://github.com/wc-catalogue/blaze-elements

• hit yarn from root
• hit yarn tsc -> first time compilation ( everything's ok ) => first time definitions/ folder generated
• hit yarn tsc again -> errors

[BrainSlugs83]

We're having a similar issue -- same version of typescript (2.2.1) and Visual Studio 2015 (Update 3); the first time the build runs, there are zero errors, but after that we get hundreds of these errors.

It appears that all of the errors (for us) are in the "node_modules" folder, which we have set to exclude in our tsconfig.json file. -- From looking at similar bugs, it seems like the excludes aren't treated the same in this version of typescript?

Our tsconfig.json file:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "noImplicitAny": false,
    "noEmitOnError": true,
    "removeComments": false,
    "sourceMap": true,
    "target": "es5",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true
  },
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "wwwroot",
    "aot",
    "AngularApp/main-aot.ts"

  ],
  "compileOnSave": true
}

Some of the errors we get (they're all the same, but different files):

Severity	Code	Description	Project	File	Line	Suppression State
Error	TS5055	Cannot write file 'C:/XYZ/Project.AppWeb/node_modules/zone.js/dist/zone.js' because it would overwrite input file.	TypeScript Virtual Projects		1	Active
Error	TS5055	Cannot write file 'C:/XYZ/Project.AppWeb/node_modules/events/events.js' because it would overwrite input file.	TypeScript Virtual Projects		1	Active
Error	TS5055	Cannot write file 'C:/XYZ/Project.AppWeb/node_modules/core-js/modules/_wks.js' because it would overwrite input file.	TypeScript Virtual Projects		1	Active
Error	TS5055	Cannot write file 'C:/XYZ/Project.AppWeb/node_modules/core-js/modules/_uid.js' because it would overwrite input file.	TypeScript Virtual Projects		1	Active
Error	TS5055	Cannot write file 'C:/XYZ/Project.AppWeb/node_modules/core-js/modules/_to-primitive.js' because it would overwrite input file.	TypeScript Virtual Projects		1	Active

Again, if we delete the "node_modules" folder the build will work once, but then once it's been recreated, it will fail on the next rebuild.

[mhegazy]

@Hotell i am not seeing this locally, what am i missing?

c:\test\14538\blaze-elements>yarn tsc
yarn tsc v0.18.1
$ "c:\test\14538\blaze-elements\node_modules\.bin\tsc"
Done in 5.46s.

c:\test\14538\blaze-elements>yarn tsc
yarn tsc v0.18.1
$ "c:\test\14538\blaze-elements\node_modules\.bin\tsc"
Done in 5.87s.

c:\test\14538\blaze-elements>dir /B definitions
packages
polyfills.d.ts
styles.d.ts
test-helpers.d.ts
vendors.d.ts

c:\test\14538\blaze-elements>yarn tsc
yarn tsc v0.18.1
$ "c:\test\14538\blaze-elements\node_modules\.bin\tsc"
Done in 4.48s.

[mhegazy]

@BrainSlugs83 if you have a repro project i would love to take a look.

[max-favilli]

I am also facing the same problem, these are the errors:

And this is my tsconfig.json:

Since I am not using typescript at all I just created tsconfig to skip build, I also had to choose target=ES6 otherwise I was having other errors.

[mhegazy]

is the tsconfig.json part of your project? and can you confirm the content type is "Content"? if so, can you share your project?

[max-favilli]

@mhegazy Hi, yes I can confirm tsconfig.json is included in the project:

But I am sorry I don't know what "content type" are you referring to, can you please clarify?

I can't share the project.