Where is Create-react-app Webpack Config and Files?

When working with React and using the popular create-react-app tool, you might wonder where the webpack configuration and files are located. In this blog post, we will explore the location of these files and discuss how you can customize them to fit your project’s needs.

Understanding create-react-app

create-react-app is a command-line tool that sets up a new React project with a pre-configured development environment. It abstracts away the complex configuration of tools like webpack and Babel, allowing you to focus on writing code rather than configuring build tools.

By default, create-react-app hides the webpack configuration files to simplify the development experience. However, if you need to customize the webpack configuration, you can do so by ejecting your project.

Ejecting the Project

Ejecting your create-react-app project will reveal the hidden webpack configuration files, allowing you to modify them according to your requirements. To eject your project, navigate to the root directory of your project in the terminal and run the following command:

npx react-scripts eject

This command will generate a config folder in your project’s root directory, which contains the webpack configuration files.

Customizing the Webpack Configuration

Once you have ejected your project, you can locate the webpack configuration file at config/webpack.config.js. This file contains the webpack configuration for both development and production environments.

If you need to make changes to the webpack configuration, you can modify this file directly. However, keep in mind that modifying the webpack configuration can be complex and may require a good understanding of webpack concepts.

Alternative Solution: Using react-app-rewired

If you prefer not to eject your project, an alternative solution is to use the react-app-rewired package. This package allows you to customize the create-react-app configuration without ejecting.

To use react-app-rewired, follow these steps:

1. Install the package by running the following command:

npm install react-app-rewired --save-dev

2. Create a config-overrides.js file in the root directory of your project.
3. Inside config-overrides.js, you can modify the webpack configuration using the provided API.
4. Update the scripts section in your package.json file to use react-app-rewired instead of react-scripts.

"scripts": {
  "start": "react-app-rewired start",
  "build": "react-app-rewired build",
  "test": "react-app-rewired test"
}

By following these steps, you can customize the webpack configuration without ejecting your project.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we explored the location of the webpack configuration and files when using create-react-app. We learned that by ejecting the project, we can access the webpack configuration files directly. Alternatively, we can use the react-app-rewired package to customize the configuration without ejecting. Understanding the webpack configuration allows you to tailor your React projects to meet specific requirements.