Unexpected output path

[stebogit]

• Laravel Mix Version: v6.0.19
• Node Version: v16.2.0
• NPM Version: v7.13.0
• OS: macOS BigSur (v11.1)

Description:

I want to build two sets of JS files, one for the FE inside the (default) /public folder, the other for the BE inside a different folder, specifically /resources/scripts

Steps To Reproduce:

This is my webpack.mix.js:

const mix = require('laravel-mix');

mix
    .js('resources/js/main.js', 'public/js')
    .js('resources/js/contours/index.js', 'public/js/contours.js')
    .react()
    .sass('resources/sass/styles.scss', 'public/css')
    .sass('resources/sass/contours.scss', 'public/css/contours.css')
    .js('resources/scripts/contouring/src/index.js', 'resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js')
;

The contouring.js file always ends up created inside the /public folder, regardless of the output path I use

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────┐
│                                                                        File │ Size      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│                                                             /js/contours.js │ 1.92 MiB  │
│                                                                 /js/main.js │ 1.08 MiB  │
│                           /resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js │ 1.65 MiB  │ <--
│                                                            css/contours.css │ 14.1 KiB  │
│                                                              css/styles.css │ 178 KiB   │
│   images/vendor/leaflet/dist/layers-2x.png?8f2c4d11474275fbc1614b9098334eae │ 1.23 KiB  │
│      images/vendor/leaflet/dist/layers.png?416d91365b44e4b4f4777663e6f009f3 │ 696 bytes │
│ images/vendor/leaflet/dist/marker-icon.png?2b3e1faf89f94a4835397e7a43b4f77d │ 1.43 KiB  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────┘

I tried the following but the output is always the same

.js('...index.js', '../resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js')
.js('...index.js', '/../resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js')
.js('...index.js', './../resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js')
.js('...index.js', 'public/../resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js')
.js('...index.js', 'resources/../../resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js')

The public folder seems to be used by default even if you don't specify it in the output path, so the output is the same even with:

mix
    .js('resources/js/main.js', 'js')
    .js('resources/js/contours/index.js', 'js/contours.js')
    .react()
    .sass('resources/sass/styles.scss', 'css')
    .sass('resources/sass/contours.scss', 'css/contours.css')
    .js('resources/scripts/contouring/src/index.js', 'resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js');

Setting the public path to the project root would produce the expected result for the specified built files, however the vendor images and the mix-manifest.json file would be generated in the root folder, which is not OK:

mix
    .setPublicPath('/')
    .js('resources/js/main.js', 'public/js')
    .js('resources/js/contours/index.js', 'public/js/contours.js')
    .react()
    .sass('resources/sass/styles.scss', 'public/css')
    .sass('resources/sass/contours.scss', 'public/css/contours.css')
    .js('resources/scripts/contouring/src/index.js', 'resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js')
;

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────┐
│                                                                        File │ Size      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│                                                      /public/js/contours.js │ 1.92 MiB  │ <-- now `public/...`
│                                                          /public/js/main.js │ 1.08 MiB  │
│                           /resources/scripts/contouring/build/contouring.js │ 1.65 MiB  │
│   images/vendor/leaflet/dist/layers-2x.png?8f2c4d11474275fbc1614b9098334eae │ 1.23 KiB  │
│      images/vendor/leaflet/dist/layers.png?416d91365b44e4b4f4777663e6f009f3 │ 696 bytes │
│ images/vendor/leaflet/dist/marker-icon.png?2b3e1faf89f94a4835397e7a43b4f77d │ 1.43 KiB  │
│                                                     public/css/contours.css │ 14.1 KiB  │
│                                                       public/css/styles.css │ 178 KiB   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────┘

I'd argue that the output path should define the exact output of the built asset relatively to the public folder (whatever that is), therefore ../ in the output path should allow to write at the same level of the public folder.