This README is for babel-loader v8 + Babel v7 Check the 7.x branch for docs with Babel v6
Babel Loader
This package allows transpiling JavaScript files using Babel and webpack.
Note: Issues with the output should be reported on the Babel Issues tracker.
Install
webpack 4.x | babel-loader 8.x | babel 7.x
npm install -D babel-loader @babel/core @babel/preset-env webpackUsage
webpack documentation: Loaders
Within your webpack configuration object, you’ll need to add the babel-loader to the list of modules, like so:
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.m?js$/,
exclude: /(node_modules|bower_components)/,
use: {
loader: 'babel-loader',
options: {
presets: ['@babel/preset-env']
}
}
}
]
}Options
See the babel options.
You can pass options to the loader by using the options
property:
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.m?js$/,
exclude: /(node_modules|bower_components)/,
use: {
loader: 'babel-loader',
options: {
presets: ['@babel/preset-env'],
plugins: ['@babel/plugin-proposal-object-rest-spread']
}
}
}
]
}This loader also supports the following loader-specific option:
cacheDirectory: Defaultfalse. When set, the given directory will be used to cache the results of the loader. Future webpack builds will attempt to read from the cache to avoid needing to run the potentially expensive Babel recompilation process on each run. If the value is set totruein options ({cacheDirectory: true}), the loader will use the default cache directory innode_modules/.cache/babel-loaderor fallback to the default OS temporary file directory if nonode_modulesfolder could be found in any root directory.cacheIdentifier: Default is a string composed by the@babel/core’s version, thebabel-loader’s version, the contents of.babelrcfile if it exists, and the value of the environment variableBABEL_ENVwith a fallback to theNODE_ENVenvironment variable. This can be set to a custom value to force cache busting if the identifier changes.cacheCompression: Defaulttrue. When set, each Babel transform output will be compressed with Gzip. If you want to opt-out of cache compression, set it tofalse– your project may benefit from this if it transpiles thousands of files.customize: Defaultnull. The path of a module that exports acustomcallback like the one that you’d pass to.custom(). Since you already have to make a new file to use this, it is recommended that you instead use.customto create a wrapper loader. Only use this if you must continue usingbabel-loaderdirectly, but still want to customize.
Troubleshooting
babel-loader is slow!
Make sure you are transforming as few files as possible. Because you
are probably matching /\.m?js$/, you might be transforming
the node_modules folder or other unwanted source.
To exclude node_modules, see the exclude
option in the loaders config as documented above.
You can also speed up babel-loader by as much as 2x by using the
cacheDirectory option. This will cache transformations to
the filesystem.
Babel is injecting helpers into each file and bloating my code!
Babel uses very small helpers for common functions such as
_extend. By default, this will be added to every file that
requires it.
You can instead require the Babel runtime as a separate module to avoid the duplication.
The following configuration disables automatic per-file runtime
injection in Babel, requiring
@babel/plugin-transform-runtime instead and making all
helper references use it.
See the docs for more information.
NOTE: You must run
npm install -D @babel/plugin-transform-runtime to include
this in your project and @babel/runtime itself as a
dependency with npm install @babel/runtime.
rules: [
// the 'transform-runtime' plugin tells Babel to
// require the runtime instead of inlining it.
{
test: /\.m?js$/,
exclude: /(node_modules|bower_components)/,
use: {
loader: 'babel-loader',
options: {
presets: ['@babel/preset-env'],
plugins: ['@babel/plugin-transform-runtime']
}
}
}
]NOTE: transform-runtime & custom polyfills (e.g. Promise library)
Since @babel/plugin-transform-runtime
includes a polyfill that includes a custom regenerator-runtime
and core-js, the
following usual shimming method using webpack.ProvidePlugin
will not work:
// ...
new webpack.ProvidePlugin({
'Promise': 'bluebird'
}),
// ...The following approach will not work either:
require('@babel/runtime/core-js/promise').default = require('bluebird');
var promise = new Promise;which outputs to (using runtime):
'use strict';
var _Promise = require('@babel/runtime/core-js/promise')['default'];
require('@babel/runtime/core-js/promise')['default'] = require('bluebird');
var promise = new _Promise();The previous Promise library is referenced and used
before it is overridden.
One approach is to have a “bootstrap” step in your application that would first override the default globals before your application:
// bootstrap.js
require('@babel/runtime/core-js/promise').default = require('bluebird');
// ...
require('./app');The
Node.js API for babel has been moved to
babel-core.
If you receive this message, it means that you have the npm package
babel installed and are using the short notation of the
loader in the webpack config (which is not valid anymore as of webpack
2.x):
{
test: /\.m?js$/,
loader: 'babel',
}webpack then tries to load the babel package instead of
the babel-loader.
To fix this, you should uninstall the npm package babel,
as it is deprecated in Babel v6. (Instead, install
@babel/cli or @babel/core.) In the case one of
your dependencies is installing babel and you cannot
uninstall it yourself, use the complete name of the loader in the
webpack config:
{
test: /\.m?js$/,
loader: 'babel-loader',
}Customize config based on webpack target
Webpack supports bundling multiple targets. For cases
where you may want different Babel configurations for each target (like
web and node), this loader provides a
target property via Babel’s caller
API.
For example, to change the environment targets passed to
@babel/preset-env based on the webpack target:
// babel.config.js
module.exports = api => {
return {
plugins: [
"@babel/plugin-proposal-nullish-coalescing-operator",
"@babel/plugin-proposal-optional-chaining"
],
presets: [
[
"@babel/preset-env",
{
useBuiltIns: "entry",
// caller.target will be the same as the target option from webpack
targets: api.caller(caller => caller && caller.target === "node")
? { node: "current" }
: { chrome: "58", ie: "11" }
}
]
]
}
}Customized Loader
babel-loader exposes a loader-builder utility that
allows users to add custom handling of Babel’s configuration for each
file that it processes.
.custom accepts a callback that will be called with the
loader’s instance of babel so that tooling can ensure that
it using exactly the same @babel/core instance as the
loader itself.
In cases where you want to customize without actually having a file
to call .custom, you may also pass the
customize option with a string pointing at a file that
exports your custom callback function.
Example
// Export from "./my-custom-loader.js" or whatever you want.
module.exports = require("babel-loader").custom(babel => {
function myPlugin() {
return {
visitor: {},
};
}
return {
// Passed the loader options.
customOptions({ opt1, opt2, ...loader }) {
return {
// Pull out any custom options that the loader might have.
custom: { opt1, opt2 },
// Pass the options back with the two custom options removed.
loader,
};
},
// Passed Babel's 'PartialConfig' object.
config(cfg) {
if (cfg.hasFilesystemConfig()) {
// Use the normal config
return cfg.options;
}
return {
...cfg.options,
plugins: [
...(cfg.options.plugins || []),
// Include a custom plugin in the options.
myPlugin,
],
};
},
result(result) {
return {
...result,
code: result.code + "\n// Generated by some custom loader",
};
},
};
});// And in your Webpack config
module.exports = {
// ..
module: {
rules: [{
// ...
loader: path.join(__dirname, 'my-custom-loader.js'),
// ...
}]
}
};customOptions(options: Object): { custom: Object, loader: Object }
Given the loader’s options, split custom options out of
babel-loader’s options.
config(cfg: PartialConfig): Object
Given Babel’s PartialConfig object, return the
options object that should be passed to
babel.transform.
result(result: Result): Result
Given Babel’s result object, allow loaders to make additional tweaks to it.