Add default value for `output.public`

[esamattis]

• Operating System: any
• Node Version: v8.9.4
• NPM Version: 5.6.0
• webpack Version: 4.0.0-beta.1
• webpack-dev-server Version: 3.0.0-beta.2

• This is a bug
• This is a modification request

Code

  // webpack.config.js
  // No config :)

Since #1295 got closed I'm opening a new issue of a feature request I mentioned there.

Could webpack-dev-server provide a default for the output.publicPath config? With this webpack-dev-server could be also used without any config like Webpack 4.

I'd propose the config to be

output: {
  publicPath: "/dist",
}

because it matches the default Webpack 4 ouput directory.

[SpaceK33z]

Yeah that might be a good idea. Are you interested in making a PR?

[esamattis]

Yeah, I can come up with something for sure.

[esamattis]

Looking at the code there actually seems to be a default for this:

https://github.com/webpack/webpack-dev-server/blob/v3.0.0-beta.2/bin/webpack-dev-server.js#L267

Currently it becomes /main.js when there is no webpack.config.js.

I but would still like to change it to /dist/main.js to match with Webpack 4.

The reasoning is that one would not have to add any config or edit the script tag when using the webpack-dev-server in a Webpack 4 project without the config file.

Ie.

webpack-dev-server

Would be basically same as

webpack --watch
python -m SimpleHTTPServer

but with automatic browser reloads.

[michael-ciniawsky]

Closing in favor of #1322