How to make use of the webpack configuration defaults in a plugin context

[Den-dp]

I like the concept of "sensible defaults" used in webpack, which helps to write less, relying on conventions.
That's why I'm trying to make use of these webpack configuration defaults in plugins as much as possible.

But right now I can't come up with an easy solution for getting those in the context of webpack plugin.

Let's say we have a plugin that uses output.path value.

What will be the simplest way of getting this value in the plugin, assuming that webpack@5 users can omit setting output.path value if it's equal to path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist')?

Should I also provide this convention in my plugin by hardcoding path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist') for cases when output.path isn't defined, or am I missing something?

[alexander-akait]

compiler.outputPath https://github.com/webpack/webpack/blob/master/types.d.ts#L1818

[Den-dp]

@alexander-akait thanks for the quick response!

So what I tried right now is the following

npm init -y
npm i webpack webpack-cli

module.exports = {
   plugins: [
        new class ExamplePlugin{
            apply(compiler) {
                console.log(compiler.outputPath);
            }
        }
    ]
};

And fount that it's an empty string

So apply method isn't a good place to read compiler.outputPath?

[alexander-akait]

It will be default after this hook https://github.com/webpack/webpack/blob/master/lib/webpack.js#L79

[Den-dp]

Oh, nvm, now I get it

Thanks for helping me