fix: change help logic

makes it so help is shown when the webpack build fails and there is no webpack.config.js

possibly hide the build failing error as well? also consider showing additional information about the default configuration

Author: kingdaro

bin/webpack.js

@@ -196,12 +196,6 @@
 				"Controls the output of lifecycle messaging e.g. Started watching files... (verbose, info, none)"
 		}
 	});
-
-	if (yargs.argv._.length === 0) {
-		yargs.showHelp();
-		return;
-	}
-
 	// yargs will terminate the process early when the user uses help or version.
 	// This causes large help outputs to be cut short (https://github.com/nodejs/node/wiki/API-changes-between-v0.10-and-v4#process).
 	// To prevent this we use the yargs.parse API and exit the process normally
@@ -465,9 +459,12 @@
 				if (err) {
 					lastHash = null;
 					console.error(err.stack || err);
-					if (err.details) console.error(err.details);
-					process.exit(1); // eslint-disable-line
+					if (err.details) {
+						console.error(err.details);
+					}
+					process.exit(1);
 				}
+
 				if (outputOptions.json) {
 					stdout.write(
 						JSON.stringify(stats.toJson(outputOptions), null, 2) + "\n"
@@ -477,10 +474,20 @@
 					var statsString = stats.toString(outputOptions);
 					if (statsString) stdout.write(statsString + "\n");
 				}
+
 				if (!options.watch && stats.hasErrors()) {
 					process.exitCode = 2;
+
+					const fs = require("fs");
+					const context = stats.compilation.compiler.context;
+					const configPath = context + "/webpack.config.js";
+					const configMissing = !fs.existsSync(configPath);
+					if (yargs.argv._.length === 0 && configMissing) {
+						yargs.showHelp("log");
+					}
 				}
 			}
+
 			if (firstOptions.watch || options.watch) {
 				var watchOptions =
 					firstOptions.watchOptions ||
@@ -496,7 +503,9 @@
 				compiler.watch(watchOptions, compilerCallback);
 				if (outputOptions.infoVerbosity !== "none")
 					console.log("\nWebpack is watching the files…\n");
-			} else compiler.run(compilerCallback);
+			} else {
+				compiler.run(compilerCallback);
+			}
 		}
 
 		processOptions(options);