CleanWebpackPlugin does not clean in Webpack 5

Question

I am using latest version of webpack 5.3.2 with "clean-webpack-plugin": "^3.0.0". And apparently the plugin does not clean dist folder when I build.

Here's my webpack info:

  Binaries:
    Node: 12.18.1 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.1/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.4 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.1/bin/yarn
    npm: 6.14.8 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.1/bin/npm
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 86.0.4240.111
    Firefox: 82.0
  Packages:
    clean-webpack-plugin: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0 
    copy-webpack-plugin: ^6.2.1 => 6.2.1 
    terser-webpack-plugin: ^5.0.3 => 5.0.3 
    webpack: ^5.3.2 => 5.3.2 
    webpack-cli: ^4.1.0 => 4.1.0 
  Global Packages:
    webpack-cli: 4.1.0
    webpack: 5.3.2

And here's my webpack config:

const path = require('path');
const webpack = require('webpack');
const { CleanWebpackPlugin } = require('clean-webpack-plugin');
const CopyPlugin = require('copy-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
  mode: 'development',
  entry: './src/index.ts',
  plugins: [
    new CleanWebpackPlugin({
  cleanOnceBeforeBuildPatterns: [path.join(__dirname, 'dist/**/*')]
}),
    new webpack.ProgressPlugin(),
    new CopyPlugin({
      patterns: [
        { from: 'src', to: 'src' },
        { from: 'package.json' },
        { from: 'README.md' }
      ],
    }),
  ],
  output: {
    filename: 'utils.min.js'
  },
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.(ts|tsx)$/,
        loader: 'ts-loader',
        include: [path.resolve(__dirname, 'src')],
        exclude: [/node_modules/]
      },
      {
        test: /\.m?js$/,
        exclude: [/node_modules/],
        use: {
          loader: 'babel-loader',
          options: {
            presets: ['@babel/preset-env']
          }
        }
      }]
  },

  resolve: {
    extensions: ['.tsx', '.ts', '.js']
  }
}

Even when I enable verbose option I see no logs and the plugin doesn't clean.

Breathe

Answer 1

From webpack v5, you can remove the clean-webpack-plugin plugin and use the output.clean option in your webpack config:

 output: {
    filename: 'utils.min.js',
    clean: true,
 }

Farthingale

link to Cleaning up the /dist folder in webpack 5 using output.clean. also, there is discussion about deprecating clean-webpack-plugin in favor of output.clean here – Daphne

Answer 2

Apparently when you specify an option.output(in my case for the customization of the output bundle name) clean-webpack-plugin will also need you to specify the path or else the plugin will be disabled with no error!:

  output: {
    filename: 'utils.min.js',
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist')
  },

Breathe