Restart webpack development server on changing .env file

[vymarkov]

Description

each time when .env file is changed webpack source .env and apply to process.env, the development server then use updated environment variables so you don't need to stop the dev server and start with the nx serve command again, thus we reduce time on rebuilding the same stuff in case of usage typescript instead of plain javascript

Motivation

I am often faced with the need to update the .env file with new values or adding new ones, then I need to stop the development server and restart with the nx serve command again.

I need to work with the codebase where webpack takes up to 4 minutes to start the development server, so it makes the devex not so good.

Suggested Implementation

Need to investigate how's it possible to make it real with webpack

Alternate Implementations

[vymarkov]

@vsavkin I want to clarify I primary work with Nest.js

[linbudu599]

Maybe you can configure webpackDevServer.watchFiles in build executor webpackConfig options?

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[vymarkov]

it's still relevant

[Pietrox]

For me too, really annoying when using Tilt too.
nx reset tends to break the pod readiness when trying to reload that way.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it hasn't had any recent activity. It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs.
If we missed this issue please reply to keep it active.
Thanks for being a part of the Nx community! 🙏

[vymarkov]

it's still relevant

[xiongemi]

for this one, it is not supported out of the box. For nx, it reads the env variable when the process got forked

nx/packages/nx/src/tasks-runner/forked-process-task-runner.ts

Line 327 in c92f612

private getEnvVariablesForTask(

, it does not re-update the env variable while the process is running.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it hasn't had any recent activity. It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs.
If we missed this issue please reply to keep it active.
Thanks for being a part of the Nx community! 🙏

[vymarkov]

it's still relevant

[jaysoo]

The .env loading is handled by Nx CLI, not individual executors, and it is hard to support reloading because dotenv will not override any defined variables. This is the correct behavior, or else .env files will override system variables.

We could reload the entire processes, but then you'd still have to wait for the full build, so it's not really better.

It's possible we can do something smarter, like tracking what variables are being set, but it requires some design and is non-trivial.