Why does the prestart:prod script remove the dist folder?

[fvilers]

Hi! I'm trying to deploy my first NestJS application and I may be doing something wrong. I can't find the documentation about building for production on the NestJS website.

From the available npm scripts, I've built the application using the build script and I'm trying to run it using the start:prod script. What bugs me is why do we have a prestart:prod script that removes the whole dist folder? The start:prod script can't start anything without it.

I suppose this is a bug and that the prestart:prod script is indeed a prebuild script. I'll gladly submit a PR if someone from the team confirms that bug.

[kamilmysliwiec]

"build": "tsc -p tsconfig.build.json",
"prestart:prod": "rimraf dist && npm run build"

prestart:prod removes dist and afterward, builds the entire project.

[fvilers]

OK, thanks for the precision. It looks awkward to build the application on each startup, especially in a container environment. I usually build my application only once (on delivery) then start it from the dist folder.

[theill]

I agree with @fvilers - this should be a prebuild script instead as I see it.

[justinwilson-apollidon]

+1 I agree. The start of your application should assume it has already been built via your build system. For containerized environments, this is especially something that should be prebuild.

[kamilmysliwiec]

We actually changed that already.