Entry and Context

The entry object is where webpack looks to start building the bundle. The context is an absolute string to the directory that contains the entry files.

context

string

The base directory, an absolute path, for resolving entry points and loaders from configuration.

const path = require('path');

module.exports = {
  //...
  context: path.resolve(__dirname, 'app'),
};

By default the current directory is used, but it's recommended to pass a value in your configuration. This makes your configuration independent from CWD (current working directory).

---

entry

string [string] object = { <key> string | [string] | object = { import string | [string], dependOn string | [string], filename string, layer string }} (function() => string | [string] | object = { <key> string | [string] } | object = { import string | [string], dependOn string | [string], filename string })

The point or points where to start the application bundling process. If an array is passed then all items will be processed.

A dynamically loaded module is not an entry point.

Simple rule: one entry point per HTML page. SPA: one entry point, MPA: multiple entry points.

module.exports = {
  //...
  entry: {
    home: './home.js',
    about: './about.js',
    contact: './contact.js',
  },
};

Naming

If a string or array of strings is passed, the chunk is named main. If an object is passed, each key is the name of a chunk, and the value describes the entry point for the chunk.

Entry descriptor

If an object is passed the value might be a string, array of strings or a descriptor:

module.exports = {
  //...
  entry: {
    home: './home.js',
    shared: ['react', 'react-dom', 'redux', 'react-redux'],
    catalog: {
      import: './catalog.js',
      filename: 'pages/catalog.js',
      dependOn: 'shared',
    },
    personal: {
      import: './personal.js',
      filename: 'pages/personal.js',
      dependOn: 'shared',
      chunkLoading: 'jsonp',
      layer: 'name of layer', // set the layer for an entry point
    },
  },
};

Descriptor syntax might be used to pass additional options to an entry point.

Output filename

By default, the output filename for the entry chunk is extracted from output.filename but you can specify a custom output filename for a specific entry:

module.exports = {
  //...
  entry: {
    app: './app.js',
    home: { import: './contact.js', filename: 'pages/[name][ext]' },
    about: { import: './about.js', filename: 'pages/[name][ext]' },
  },
};

Descriptor syntax was used here to pass filename-option to the specific entry points.

Dependencies

By default, every entry chunk stores all the modules that it uses. With dependOn option you can share the modules from one entry chunk to another:

module.exports = {
  //...
  entry: {
    app: { import: './app.js', dependOn: 'react-vendors' },
    'react-vendors': ['react', 'react-dom', 'prop-types'],
  },
};

The app chunk will not contain the modules that react-vendors has.

dependOn option can also accept an array of strings:

module.exports = {
  //...
  entry: {
    moment: { import: 'moment-mini', runtime: 'runtime' },
    reactvendors: { import: ['react', 'react-dom'], runtime: 'runtime' },
    testapp: {
      import: './wwwroot/component/TestApp.tsx',
      dependOn: ['reactvendors', 'moment'],
    },
  },
};

Also, you can specify multiple files per entry using an array:

module.exports = {
  //...
  entry: {
    app: { import: ['./app.js', './app2.js'], dependOn: 'react-vendors' },
    'react-vendors': ['react', 'react-dom', 'prop-types'],
  },
};

Dynamic entry

If a function is passed then it will be invoked on every make event.

Note that the make event triggers when webpack starts and for every invalidation when watching for file changes.

module.exports = {
  //...
  entry: () => './demo',
};

or

module.exports = {
  //...
  entry: () => new Promise((resolve) => resolve(['./demo', './demo2'])),
};

For example: you can use dynamic entries to get the actual entries from an external source (remote server, file system content or database):

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  entry() {
    return fetchPathsFromSomeExternalSource(); // returns a promise that will be resolved with something like ['src/main-layout.js', 'src/admin-layout.js']
  },
};

When combining with the output.library option: If an array is passed only the last item is exported.