gulpfile.babel.js does not compile imported es6 modules from node_modules

[shadowmint]

tldr; When running in 'babel' mode, gulp compiles local files from es6 to js to run them.
However, modules in node_modules are assumed to already be compiled and are not modified.

What's up with that?

long version

Repo showing the issue: https://github.com/shadowmint/tmp-gulp-test-babel

The error:

doug:gulptmp doug$ gulp
[11:17:18] Requiring external module babel-core/register
/Users/doug/gulptmp/node_modules/foo/index.js:1
(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { export default f
                                                              ^^^^^^
SyntaxError: Unexpected reserved word
    at exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:73:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:443:25)
    at Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
    at Object.require.extensions.(anonymous function) [as .js] (/Users/doug/gulptmp/node_modules/babel-core/lib/api/register/node.js:214:7)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/doug/gulptmp/gulpfile.babel.js:2:30)
    at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)

Modules in node_modules seem to not be compiled?

Although this... kind of makes sense, it's annoying in a very real sense.

This is the situation I currently have:

• Project A has a module gulp setup with a variety of tasks defined in gulp/taskA.js, gulp/taskB.js, etc.
• Project B uses Project A as a library.

Ideally, B could npm install A, and then use this from the local gulpfile.babel.js:

import * as scripts from 'A/gulp/tasks/scripts';

gulp.task('child-scripts', ['scripts']);

...and indeed, if A is in raw javascript, it works. However, if A uses es6 gulp files, the import fails (as shown in the linked example).

The solution is to clone A as a submodule in B, and that works too... but it's not ideal, for all the reasons that using npm at all makes sense.

So, two questions:

1. Is there a good reason not to invoke babel on node_modules?

2. Is this a 'bug' or a 'feature'; in that, will it ever be fixed, or is this something that I need to find a long term work around for?

...or am I just 'doing it wrong'? The documentation on gulpfile.bable.js is pretty sparse, but as far as I can see I would expect what I'm doing to work...?

[phated]

All node modules should be compiled before publishing to npm. What you are doing is an anti-pattern.

[shadowmint]

It's not on npm, its installed using an npm git url.

[shadowmint]

I'd also like to point out that what I'm doing here is not making package A in es6; package A is compiled from es6, using its own gulpfile.

What I'm trying to do is use package A's gulp config which is in es6.

[phated]

Your prepublish script might run on install from github, if not, you can use an install script. No matter what, it is a packaging problem (thus the npm client) not a gulp problem.

[shadowmint]

So you're suggesting the work around here is to have package A's gulpfile compile it's own gulpfile.babel.js to js and put that into some dist/gulp folder?

Seems like a hack, but fair enough. /shrug

[callumacrae]

https://babeljs.io/docs/usage/require/

NOTE: By default all requires to node_modules will be ignored.

This isn't a gulp issue

[shadowmint]

It actually reads:

NOTE: By default all requires to node_modules will be ignored.
You can override this by passing an ignore regex via:

Is there some way to control how gulp imports babel to customize this from
gulp then?

On Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 5:12 PM, Callum Macrae notifications@github.com
wrote:

https://babeljs.io/docs/usage/require/

NOTE: By default all requires to node_modules will be ignored.

This isn't a gulp issue

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1234 (comment).

[callumacrae]

Could try this #830 (comment). Also read the other comments

[shadowmint]

oh, thats quite a reasonable way of doing it~
thanks!

On Monday, September 7, 2015, Callum Macrae notifications@github.com
wrote:

Could try this #830 (comment)
#830 (comment)

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1234 (comment).

[dsilva]

You could use the "ignore" option in your .babelrc but it's broken right now -- neither babel-cli nor babel-register are reading it: https://phabricator.babeljs.io/T6726

[akhilshastri]

@shadowmint & All, I am facing the same issue..? May I know what is the good approach..? I am bit confused by above comment..

The situation is same as @shadowmint has discussed, "dev-tools" is lib which has gulp task and "CAPP" imports the tasks from "dev-tools" module in gulpfile.babel.js when I run the gulp build it shows below error:

`C:\projects\app\CAPP>gulp build
[22:29:54] Requiring external module babel-register
C:\projects\app\CAPP\node_modules\dev-tools\index.js:6
import config from './tasks/config';
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token import
at exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:53:16)
at Module._compile (module.js:387:25)
at Module._extensions..js (module.js:422:10)
`

[phated]

Support questions should be directed to StackOverflow. I am going to lock this issue, as it has become a dumping ground for all comments about babel.