TypeScript Compile Options: module vs target

Question

Trying to have some basic understanding about module and target.

I would like to know the difference between module and target compile options in a typical tsconfig.json

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "module": "es6",
        "sourceMap": true,
        "target": "es6"
    }
}

What happens if I provide the following options:

module: commonjs, target: es6

module: es6, target: commonjs

module: commonjs, target: commonjs

Answer 1

There are 2 different things. --target simply means which version of ECMAScript you're using to code. --module simply means which module system you're using such as commonjs for Node or ES module for all that supports it and what not.