copy-webpack-plugin-v5

copy-webpack-plugin

Copies individual files or entire directories, which already exist, to the build directory.

Getting Started

To begin, you'll need to install copy-webpack-plugin:

$ npm install copy-webpack-plugin --save-dev

Then add the plugin to your webpack config. For example:

webpack.config.js

const CopyPlugin = require('copy-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      { from: 'source', to: 'dest' },
      { from: 'other', to: 'public' },
    ]),
  ],
};

ℹ️ webpack-copy-plugin is not designed to copy files generated from the build process; rather, it is to copy files that already exist in the source tree, as part of the build process.

ℹ️ If you want webpack-dev-server to write files to the output directory during development, you can force it with the writeToDisk option or the write-file-webpack-plugin.

Options

The plugin's signature:

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [new CopyPlugin(patterns, options)],
};

Patterns

Name	Type	Default	Description
from	{String|Object}	undefined	Glob or path from where we сopy files.
to	{String}	compiler.options.output	Output path.
context	{String}	options.context || compiler.options.context	A path that determines how to interpret the from path.
toType	{String}	undefined	Determinate what is to option - directory, file or template.
test	{String|RegExp}	undefined	Pattern for extracting elements to be used in to templates.
force	{Boolean}	false	Overwrites files already in compilation.assets (usually added by other plugins/loaders).
ignore	{Array}	[]	Globs to ignore files.
flatten	{Boolean}	false	Removes all directory references and only copies file names.
cache	{Boolean|Object}	false	Enable transform caching. You can use { cache: { key: 'my-cache-key' } } to invalidate the cache.
transform	{Function}	undefined	Allows to modify the file contents.
transformPath	{Function}	undefined	Allows to modify the writing path.

from

Type: String|Object Default: undefined

Glob or path from where we сopy files. Globs accept minimatch options.

You can define from as Object and use the node-glob options.

⚠️ Don't use directly \\ in from (i.e path\to\file.ext) option because on UNIX the backslash is a valid character inside a path component, i.e., it's not a separator. On Windows, the forward slash and the backward slash are both separators. Instead please use / or path methods.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      'relative/path/to/file.ext',
      '/absolute/path/to/file.ext',
      'relative/path/to/dir',
      '/absolute/path/to/dir',
      '**/*',
      {
        from: '**/*',
        globOptions: {
          dot: false,
        },
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

to

Type: String Default: compiler.options.output

Output path.

⚠️ Don't use directly \\ in to (i.e path\to\dest) option because on UNIX the backslash is a valid character inside a path component, i.e., it's not a separator. On Windows, the forward slash and the backward slash are both separators. Instead please use / or path methods.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: '**/*',
        to: 'relative/path/to/dest/',
      },
      {
        from: '**/*',
        to: '/absolute/path/to/dest/',
      },
      {
        from: '**/*',
        to: '[path][name].[contenthash].[ext]',
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

context

Type: String Default: options.context|compiler.options.context

A path that determines how to interpret the from path.

⚠️ Don't use directly \\ in context (i.e path\to\context) option because on UNIX the backslash is a valid character inside a path component, i.e., it's not a separator. On Windows, the forward slash and the backward slash are both separators. Instead please use / or path methods.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/*.txt',
        to: 'dest/',
        context: 'app/',
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

toType

Type: String Default: undefined

Determinate what is to option - directory, file or template. Sometimes it is hard to say what is to, example path/to/dir-with.ext. If you want to copy files in directory you need use dir option. We try to automatically determine the type so you most likely do not need this option.

Name	Type	Default	Description
'dir'	{String}	undefined	If from is directory, to has no extension or ends in '/'
'file'	{String}	undefined	If to has extension or from is file
'template'	{String}	undefined	If to contains a template pattern

'dir'

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'path/to/file.txt',
        to: 'directory/with/extension.ext',
        toType: 'dir',
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

'file'

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'path/to/file.txt',
        to: 'file/without/extension',
        toType: 'file',
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

'template'

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/',
        to: 'dest/[name].[hash].[ext]',
        toType: 'template',
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

test

Type: string|RegExp Default: undefined

Pattern for extracting elements to be used in to templates.

Defines a {RegExp} to match some parts of the file path. These capture groups can be reused in the name property using [N] placeholder. Note that [0] will be replaced by the entire path of the file, whereas [1] will contain the first capturing parenthesis of your {RegExp} and so on...

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: '*/*',
        to: '[1]-[2].[hash].[ext]',
        test: /([^/]+)\/(.+)\.png$/,
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

force

Type: Boolean Default: false

Overwrites files already in compilation.assets (usually added by other plugins/loaders).

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/**/*',
        to: 'dest/',
        force: true,
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

ignore

Type: Array Default: []

Globs to ignore files.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/**/*',
        to: 'dest/',
        ignore: ['*.js'],
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

⚠️ Note that only relative path should be provided to ignore option, an example to ignore src/assets/subfolder/ignorfile.js :

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/assets',
        to: 'dest/',
        ignore: ['subfolder/ingorefile.js'],
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

flatten

Type: Boolean Default: false

Removes all directory references and only copies file names.

⚠️ If files have the same name, the result is non-deterministic.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/**/*',
        to: 'dest/',
        flatten: true,
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

cache

Type: Boolean|Object Default: false

Enable/disable transform caching. You can use { cache: { key: 'my-cache-key' } } to invalidate the cache. Default path to cache directory: node_modules/.cache/copy-webpack-plugin.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/*.png',
        to: 'dest/',
        transform(content, path) {
          return optimize(content);
        },
        cache: true,
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

transform

Type: Function Default: undefined

Allows to modify the file contents.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/*.png',
        to: 'dest/',
        transform(content, path) {
          return optimize(content);
        },
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/*.png',
        to: 'dest/',
        transform(content, path) {
          return Promise.resolve(optimize(content));
        },
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

transformPath

Type: Function Default: undefined

Allows to modify the writing path.

⚠️ Don't return directly \\ in transformPath (i.e path\to\newFile) option because on UNIX the backslash is a valid character inside a path component, i.e., it's not a separator. On Windows, the forward slash and the backward slash are both separators. Instead please use / or path methods.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/*.png',
        to: 'dest/',
        transformPath(targetPath, absolutePath) {
          return 'newPath';
        },
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin([
      {
        from: 'src/*.png',
        to: 'dest/',
        transformPath(targetPath, absolutePath) {
          return Promise.resolve('newPath');
        },
      },
    ]),
  ],
};

Options

Name	Type	Default	Description
logLevel	{String}	'warn'	Level of messages that the module will log
ignore	{Array}	[]	Array of globs to ignore (applied to from)
context	{String}	compiler.options.context	A path that determines how to interpret the from path, shared for all patterns
copyUnmodified	{Boolean}	false	Copies files, regardless of modification when using watch or webpack-dev-server. All files are copied on first build, regardless of this option

logLevel

This property defines the level of messages that the module will log. Valid levels include:

• trace
• debug
• info
• warn (default)
• error
• silent

Setting a log level means that all other levels below it will be visible in the console. Setting logLevel: 'silent' will hide all console output. The module leverages webpack-log for logging management, and more information can be found on its page.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [new CopyPlugin([...patterns], { logLevel: 'debug' })],
};

ignore

Array of globs to ignore (applied to from).

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [new CopyPlugin([...patterns], { ignore: ['*.js', '*.css'] })],
};

context

A path that determines how to interpret the from path, shared for all patterns.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [new CopyPlugin([...patterns], { context: '/app' })],
};

copyUnmodified

Copies files, regardless of modification when using watch or webpack-dev-server. All files are copied on first build, regardless of this option.

ℹ️ By default, we only copy modified files during a webpack --watch or webpack-dev-server build. Setting this option to true will copy all files.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [new CopyPlugin([...patterns], { copyUnmodified: true })],
};

Contributing

Please take a moment to read our contributing guidelines if you haven't yet done so.

CONTRIBUTING

License

MIT