CLI option --hot-only is confusing

[agoldis]

Using

• webpack-dev-server 2.4.2
• webpack 2.4.1

According to the documentation CLI option --hot-only should:

Enable Hot Module Replacement (see devServer.hot) without page refresh as fallback in case of build failures.

However, HMR won't work unless --hot option is specified as well. The reason is that webpack/bin/convert-argv.js only injects HotModuleReplacementPlugin if --hot option is set.

CLI help message is a bit better, but still worth mentioning that it must be --hot option set:

./node_modules/.bin/webpack-dev-server -h
...
--hot-only                 Do not refresh page if HMR fails          [boolean]
...

May be it's better to implicitly apply --hot if --hot-only mentioned

[benwiley4000]

Agree with this - was about to open the same. Documentation implies --hot-only would enable hot module replacement and requiring --hot in addition seems needlessly verbose. I can submit a PR to correct this behavior if desired?

[benwiley4000]

Looks like this is actually handed inside of webpack (confusing). So there are two options:

1. Assign argv['hot'] to true before passing argv to webpack/bin/convert-argv if argv['hot-only'] is true (seems messy).
2. Check additionally for the hot-only arg inside of webpack/bin/convert-argv.js (since we're already checking for hot this seems ok?).

I prefer option 2.

[agoldis]

@benwiley4000 Thank for supporting this request, i am certain that option 2 + documentation fix will make it clearer.
It would be good, thought, to get an input from contributors :)

[arjunkathuria]

this bug / issue still around ?

can get started on my contributions : )

[shellscape]

@arjunkathuria we'd happily review a pull request!

[arjunkathuria]

@shellscape i have a long weekend coming, will look into it : )

[shellscape]

Closing issue as abandoned as it's more than 90 days stale