Tailwind v4 CLI fails silently in Linux with no errors

[danjac]

What version of Tailwind CSS are you using?

4.0.0

What build tool (or framework if it abstracts the build tool) are you using?

For example: postcss-cli 8.3.1, Next.js 10.0.9, webpack 5.28.0

tailwindcss-linux-x64-4.0.0

What version of Node.js are you using?

N/A

What browser are you using?

N/A

What operating system are you using?

Linux/Fedora

Reproduction URL

N/A

Describe your issue

When running the following command:

~/.local/bin/tailwindcss-linux-x64-4.0.0 --output ./static/tailwind.css --minify --input ./static/app.css

The command fails with no errors output to terminal and no CSS file is built. Running the --watch flag has the same result.

As there are no errors, it is impossible to diagnose the issue further. The previous used version 3.4.14 worked.

[danjac]

Playing with the command line, it appears the issue is with the --input i.e. the css file: removing this flag generates the CSS.

Again though the bug is not the input CSS itself, but the lack of a stacktrace or errors that indicate what the problem is.

[doits]

Try to run it with DEBUB=1 env var, e.g. DEBUG=1 ~/.local/bin/tailwindcss-linux-x64-4.0.0 .... Maybe this gives some more output.

[danjac]

Try to run it with DEBUB=1 env var, e.g. DEBUG=1 ~/.local/bin/tailwindcss-linux-x64-4.0.0 .... Maybe this gives some more output.

Same result. No error output.

[danjac]

By process of elimination it appears to be the included tailwind.config.js

@config '../tailwind.config.js`;

Commenting out that line, the build works. With the include, it fails silently. I'd like to migrate away from the Javascript config, but can't find any documentation on migrating over the plugins (typography,forms etc).

[tduffield]

So, I ran into the same issue, and after going through the migration process away from the JS config file, for me the issue appeared to be a specific plugin (for me, it was flowbite/plugin). (Plugin documentation).

Update: Created an issue with Flowbite regarding my specific failure case: themesberg/flowbite#1020. If they find a solution to their specific problem, it may help fix problems with other plugins.

[danjac]

In my case, these are the core Tailwind plugins e.g. @tailwindcss/typography. The v3 Tailwind (Rust) CLI was able to import these without any problems, in v4 it just breaks.

So there are 3 issues:

1. The Rust CLI fails silently with no errors or stacktraces when handling imports in the tailwind.config.js file. This should never happen: any errors should be reported to the user to enable troubleshooting. Note that using DEBUG=1 flag does not work either. This at least is the case in Linux (note this also includes Docker images running Tailwind).
2. The plugin system no longer works with CLI v4.
3. The upgrade documentation, as far as I can see, does not provide any information in replacing or migrating these plugins (referring here to the core Tailwind plugins, let alone 3rd party). The docs for the plugins themselves have not been updated with any info on compatibility with v4.

So it looks like the maintainers did not test the CLI+plugins, with the result that this will no longer work with the majority of Tailwind setups that rely on this tool.

Edit: looks like the way to add plugins is detailed here: https://tailwindcss.com/docs/functions-and-directives#plugin-directive

@plugin "@tailwindcss/forms";
@plugin "@tailwindcss/typography";

[Skulli]

I am just experiencing the same bug on MacOS with my 4.0.9 setup after upgrading from 3.4. No error messages, no output is generated.

my setup

application.tailwind.css

@import 'tailwindcss';

build command

 DEBUG=1 npx tailwindcss/cli  --postcss -i ./app/assets/stylesheets/application.tailwind.css -o ./app/assets/builds/application.css

working command

 ./node_modules/.bin/tailwindcss --postcss  -i ./app/assets/stylesheets/application.tailwind.css -o ./app/assets/builds/application.css

[philipp-spiess]

Hey all! Sorry for the late reply this seems to have slipped through the cracks a bit. Are you still having issues with this? I'd appreciate a minimal reproduction setup that I can run locally to figure out why the CLI just stops in your cases.

[danjac]

I've not had any issues since updating to django-tailwind-cli version 4.2.3 or so: not sure if problem with "silently failing with no errors" still persists, but not run into it myself.

[philipp-spiess]

@danjac Thanks! Going to close this one then, there are still a few open issues related to the Single-file executable though so my hunch is that it's not all resolved but these issues are tracked separately.