referenced source files, outside of the baseDir, cause a (silent!) change to the compiled file paths

[iislucas]

When some referenced source lives outside of the baseDir, e.g. when compiling (with baseDir: 'src' and outDir: 'build'):

src/d1/foo.ts
src/d2/d2a/foo.ts
src/d2/d2b/foo.ts

and src/d1/foo.ts contains a require (or reference?) to pull in something from third_party/bar.ts then the generated output files end up within an extra subdirectory src, i.e. build/src/, even if baseDir was set to src. I think, in this case, it's probably best to give an error as otherwise typescript wouldn't know where to put third_party/bar.ts, so it's kind of forced to ignore the baseDir.

[basarat]

node_modules/grunt-ts/tasks/modules/amdLoader.ts(1,1)

think you need to exclude node_modules see example gruntfile: https://github.com/TypeStrong/grunt-ts#getting-started it is a bit unfortunate. I hope to come up with guidance around TypeScript project organization + templates at some point.

[basarat]

@iislucas baseDir is a target option, not a task option. Let me know if that doesn't work either :)

@TypeStrong/owners I feel like removing all target options and making everything a task option, just to remove this random ambiguity.

[iislucas]

@basarat : I think I am specifying it as a target option above (the task options would be directly under ts) ... dev is the target. That not right?

[basarat]

@iislucas no a target option is directly under dev. options at the root or options under a target are called task options. I know its ugly but its grunt's design.

[iislucas]

So options under the options value of a target are called task options. sigh... But thanks for clarifying!

So If I'm understanding correctly, you're saying this config should avoid generating the build/src, and directly put subdirectories into of src/* into build/*:

ts: {
  dev: {
        src: ['src/**/*.ts', '!src/**/*.d.ts'],
        outDir: 'build/',
        baseDir: 'src',
        options: {
          target: 'es5',
          comments: true,
          noImplicitAny: true,
          sourceMap: true,
          declaration: true,
          module: 'commonjs',
          fast: 'always'
        }
  }
}

However, trying this also does not work: I still end up with output in: build/src/d1/foo.ts instead of build/d1/foo.ts...

(I'm renaming this issue to clarify that the real issue is that baseDir doesn't stop tsc from generating too many subdirectories, and that what we'd really like is a cwd like behaviour as well as baseDir (baseDir just stops directories being flattened in their output if I understand correctly...)

[iislucas]

OK, one more update... when I do the same thing but specify a single src file, I do get compilation output going into the expected directories. e.g. this works:

ts: {
  dev: {
        src: ['src/foo/main.ts'],
        outDir: 'build/',
        baseDir: 'src',
        options: {
          target: 'es5',
          comments: true,
          noImplicitAny: true,
          sourceMap: true,
          declaration: true,
          module: 'commonjs',
          fast: 'always'
        }
  }
}

It does indeed output files to 'build/foo/' and not 'build/src/foo/', but when I specify multiple src files, they annoyingly appear in 'build/src/foo/'... a bug?

[basarat]

but when I specify multiple src files,

Possibly a bug. can you tell me the src exactly so I can reproduce (.e.g is it src: ['src/foo/main.ts','src/foo/d1/second.ts'],)

[iislucas]

It's a little unclear what causes this behavior to sometimes happen, e.g. in this project:
https://github.com/uProxy/uproxy-lib/blob/iislucas-gruntts-bugtest/Gruntfile.coffee#L165
It always happens for ts:dev, but not for ts:copypasteFreedomChatMain.
I created a new simple target with 3 files, but for that case grunt-ts operates fine w.r.t. baseDir. So I'm not sure what about the ts:dev target is causing the problem. Any ideas?

[iislucas]

OK, I figured this out: the problem is when some referenced source lives outside of the baseDir, e.g. when compiling (with baseDir: 'src' and outDir: 'build'):

src/d1/foo.ts
src/d2/d2a/foo.ts
src/d2/d2b/foo.ts

and src/d1/foo.ts contains a require to pull in something from third_party/bar.ts then generated output lives within an extra subdirectory src, i.e. build/src/, even if baseDir was set to src. I think in this case, it's probably best to give an error as otherwise typescript wouldn't know where to put third_party/bar.ts, so it's kind of forced to ignore the baseDir.

[basarat]

it's probably best to give an error as otherwise typescript wouldn't know where to put third_party/bar.ts, so it's kind of forced to ignore the baseDir.

Awesome!

[iislucas]

I've updated the description; we can probably now remove the confused comments :-)