formatWebpackMessages swallows the filename with Webpack 5 and TypeScript

[prijks]

Describe the bug

When running a TypeScript project created with the latest create-react-app (5.0.1), TypeScript compile errors will not include the filename that the error occurred in. This can make tracking down errors tedious.

The cause appears to be how Webpack 5 formats errors combined with how formatWebpackMessages processes those errors. The message object passed to formatMessage in formatWebpackMessages.js contains separate message and file properties and in the case of TypeScript errors, the file name is not included in the message property, only the file property.

As a workaround for myself I have changed the formatMessage function to include the file property. This is hacky, since for one thing it duplicates the filename in the case that the message property includes the filename, but gets me past having to search for the file manually.

I changed lines 22-23 from

  } else if ('message' in message) {
    lines = message['message'].split('\n');

to

  } else if ('message' in message) {
    lines = message['message'].split('\n');

    if ('file' in message) {
      lines.unshift(message.file);
    }  

Did you try recovering your dependencies?

Not Applicable

Which terms did you search for in User Guide?

Not Applicable

Environment

Environment Info:

current version of create-react-app: 5.0.1
running from C:\Users\prijks\AppData\Local\npm-cache_npx\c67e74de0542c87c\node_modules\create-react-app

System:
OS: Windows 10 10.0.19042
CPU: (20) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900X CPU @ 3.70GHz
Binaries:
Node: 16.13.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
Yarn: Not Found
npm: 8.1.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
Browsers:
Chrome: Not Found
Edge: Spartan (44.19041.1266.0), Chromium (101.0.1210.32)
Internet Explorer: 11.0.19041.1566
npmPackages:
react: ^18.1.0 => 18.1.0
react-dom: ^18.1.0 => 18.1.0
react-scripts: 5.0.1 => 5.0.1
npmGlobalPackages:
create-react-app: Not Found

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a new app with npx create-react-app react-webpack-message-test --template cra-template-typescript
2. Introduce a TypeScript error to the app (e.g. by adding an invalid import to App.tsx) - note that it needs a TypeScript error and not a syntax error
3. Compile with npm run build

Expected behavior

Compile error includes the filename

Actual behavior

Compile error does not include the filename. The output I get when running the steps above is:

> react-scripts build

Creating an optimized production build...
Failed to compile.

TS2307: Cannot find module 'not-a-real-thing' or its corresponding type declarations.
    1 | import React from 'react';
    2 | import logo from './logo.svg';
  > 3 | import foobar from 'not-a-real-thing';
      |                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    4 | import './App.css';
    5 |
    6 | function App() {

Note there is no filename in that output.

Reproducible demo

Demo

Clone the demo, then install dependencies, then run the build script.

Can also be reproduced by creating a project following the reproduce steps above

[branko-d]

I'm hitting the same problem.

Not knowing the file in which the build error has occurred can make it difficult to locate the error in a codebase of non-trivial size.

---

The file names were printed in CRA 4.x. IIRC, they were (sometimes?) duplicated, but that was vastly preferable to the current situation.

[gautambt]

Seeing the same issue. Also seems to be reported on stackoverflow here by two other users: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/71179647/getting-a-filename-from-react-scripts-build

[CarlRibbegaardh]

#12712