Critical dependency warning on a require.resolve

[webpack-bot]

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?

bug

What is the current behavior?

Critical dependency warning on require.resolve call.

If the current behavior is a bug, please provide the steps to reproduce.

Create a file with following contents and process it with default webpack config:

let resolvedPath = require.resolve(`${somepath}`);

What is the expected behavior?

No warnings expected due to this is not a require statement and no external modules are loaded.

If this is a feature request, what is motivation or use case for changing the behavior?

–

Please mention other relevant information such as the browser version, Node.js version, webpack version and Operating System.

macOS 10.12.4 (16E195)
nodeJS v7.7.2
webpack v2.3.3

---

This issue was moved from webpack/webpack#4681 by @sokra. Orginal issue was by @dkfiresky.

Document behavior for dynamic expressions.

webpack is a static bundler and requires statically analysable expressions.

[skipjack]

This seems related to #1083. If I understand correctly, webpack can't import(...) or require a pure variable e.g. import(varName) because there's no way to determine what group of files are being referred to. However, something like:

import('./directory/${varName}.css')

gives webpack enough information to go bundle all css files from ./directory and make them accessible as require-able modules when the variable is actually defined. @webpack/documentation-team is this correct?

[bebraw]

My understanding is that import('./directory/${varName}.css') sets up a require.context internally. If you had import(varName), how could you tell statically where to point in the file system?

[ghost]

Can you please clarify why webpack thinks that require.resolve and require are the same?
As if I used the require(varName) instead of require.resolve(varName)?

[simon04]

With #1110 merged, is there anything left to be done?

[skipjack]

@dkfiresky based on the old docs, it seems require.resolve does not behave exactly like require and instead returns the id for that module. However, after a quick search, I couldn't find anything in the new docs analogous to the page I just linked to. I'm not too familiar with require.resolve in webpack so we'd have to check with the rest of @webpack/documentation-team, but it seems maybe we should add a similar page in the new /content/api section?

I'd be happy to try to port this page over if someone gives me some pointers on what is and isn't still relevant.

[ghost]

@skipjack thanks for clarification. I thought that require.resolve in webpack worked the same way as in nodejs.