Not compatible with non-flattened (pnpm) node_modules

[IlyaSemenov]

If a project uses non-flattened node_modules (such as created by pnpm), fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin fails to load typings of nested dependencies.

Steps to reproduce

Clone https://github.com/IlyaSemenov/fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin-pnpm-reproduction, then:

npm install
npx webpack

Make sure the compilation succeeds, then:

rm -rf node_modules
npm i -g pnpm
pnpm install
npx webpack

The type checks will fail.

Actual result

❯ npx webpack
Starting type checking service...
Using 1 worker with 2048MB memory limit
Hash: 34452b84502b638c21f7
Version: webpack 4.20.2
Time: 2868ms
Built at: 10/06/2018 5:00:49 PM
  Asset      Size  Chunks             Chunk Names
main.js  3.76 KiB    main  [emitted]  main
Entrypoint main = main.js
[./app.js] 21 bytes {main} [built]

ERROR in /Users/semenov/tmp/fts/node_modules/.registry.npmjs.org/@types/koa/2.0.46/node_modules/@types/cookies/index.d.ts
ERROR in /Users/semenov/tmp/fts/node_modules/.registry.npmjs.org/@types/koa/2.0.46/node_modules/@types/cookies/index.d.ts(12,26):
TS2307: Cannot find module 'express'.

ERROR in /Users/semenov/tmp/fts/node_modules/.registry.npmjs.org/@types/koa/2.0.46/node_modules/@types/cookies/index.d.ts
ERROR in /Users/semenov/tmp/fts/node_modules/.registry.npmjs.org/@types/koa/2.0.46/node_modules/@types/cookies/index.d.ts(13,26):
TS2307: Cannot find module 'connect'.

ERROR in /Users/semenov/tmp/fts/node_modules/fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin/lib/types/index.d.ts
ERROR in /Users/semenov/tmp/fts/node_modules/fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin/lib/types/index.d.ts(3,23):
TS2307: Cannot find module 'chalk'.

ERROR in /Users/semenov/tmp/fts/node_modules/fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin/lib/types/NormalizedMessage.d.ts
ERROR in /Users/semenov/tmp/fts/node_modules/fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin/lib/types/NormalizedMessage.d.ts(2,30):
TS2307: Cannot find module 'tslint'.

Expected result

1. Type checks within non-flattened node_modules work fine (same as they do with tsc, ts-node, tslint etc.)
2. Honestly, I would expect fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin not to descend into each and every module in node_modules until it's used by webpack compilation. However there are probably reasons for it to do that? Like reading all global augmentations?

[IlyaSemenov]

UPDATE: while checking the instructions above, I noticed that the last error (Cannot find module 'tslint') shows even with npm.

[johnnyreilly]

Is the problem related to symbolic links?

I know we had to make changes to ts-loader to support this: TypeStrong/ts-loader#774

Perhaps similar need to be applied to this plugin?

[IlyaSemenov]

Honestly I have not a slightest clue what could be the reason. 🤷‍♂️ I never examined how this library worked.

[johnnyreilly]

Now's your chance 😉

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.