Webpack dev server cache clearing

Question

I can't get webpack dev server to work properly. I think the issue is the compiled code it makes in memory is not clearing. I can't work out where I'm going wrong.

My config file is:

var path = require('path');
const MiniCssExtractPlugin = require("mini-css-extract-plugin");
const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
    entry: ['babel-polyfill', './src/js/index.js'],
    output: {
        path: path.join(__dirname, 'dist'),
        publicPath: "/",
        filename: 'js/index.js'
    },
    devServer: {
        contentBase: '/dist'
    },
    module: {
        rules: [
            {
                test: /\.js$/,
                use: ['babel-loader']
            },
            {
                test: /\.scss$/,
                use:  [ MiniCssExtractPlugin.loader, 'css-loader', 'sass-loader']
            }
        ]
    },
    plugins: [
        new MiniCssExtractPlugin({
            filename: 'css/styles.css',
          }),
        new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
            inject: false,
            hash: true,
            template: './src/index.html',
            filename: 'index.html'
          })
    ]

}

And my scripts:

"scripts": {
    "dev": "webpack --mode development",
    "build": "webpack --mode production",
    "start": "webpack-dev-server --mode development --open"
  },

What I want is for webpack dev server to allow me to live reload as I work, then use build to actually compile my code. The problem is, as soon as I use dev or build, and my dist file is made, webpack dev server stops working - even if I delete the dist file. I simply don't know how to get it to work. Would really appreciate any help.

Thanks, R

Answer 1

Maybe you are not running the webpack bundler(not webpack-dev-server) in watch mode

use watch mode { watch: true } and install concurrently package

npm i -D concurrently

update your start script

  {
    "scripts": {
    "dev": "webpack --mode development",
    "build": "webpack --mode production",
    "dev:server": "webpack-dev-server",
    "start": "concurrently \"npm:dev\" \"npm:dev:server\""
  }