Webpack - webpack-dev-server: command not found

Question

I am working on a React webapp using webpack, loosely alongside this tutorial.

Accidentally, I added the node_modules folder to my git. I then removed it again using git rm -f node_modules/*.

Now, when I try starting the webpack server, I get the following error:

> webpack-dev-server -d --config webpack.dev.config.js --content-base public/ --progress --colors

sh: webpack-dev-server: command not found

npm ERR! Darwin 14.4.0
npm ERR! argv "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "run" "devserve"
npm ERR! node v0.12.4
npm ERR! npm  v2.10.1
npm ERR! file sh
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! Blabber@0.0.1 devserve: `webpack-dev-server -d --config webpack.dev.config.js --content-base public/ --progress --colors`
npm ERR! spawn ENOENT

At first I thought it was only my project, but then I checked out the code checkpoints of the tutorial: same error! So something seems to be messed up globally.

Here's what I tried so far:

• rm node_modules and reinstall with npm install
• npm cache clean as someone mentioned regarding this issue on github
• install webpack globally with npm install -g webpack
• completely delete node and npm from my system (using this guide) and reinstall using brew

The error message still persists. What else can I try?

PS: The content of webpack.dev.config.js is:

var config = require('./webpack.config.js');
var webpack = require('webpack');

config.plugins.push(
  new webpack.DefinePlugin({
    "process.env": {
      "NODE_ENV": JSON.stringify("development")
    }
  })
);

module.exports = config;

Answer 1

Okay, it was easy:

npm install webpack-dev-server -g

What confused me that I did not need that at first, probably things changed with a new version.

Answer 2

The script webpack-dev-server is already installed inside ./node_modules directory. You can either install it again globally by

sudo npm install -g webpack-dev-server

or run it like this

./node_modules/webpack-dev-server/bin/webpack-dev-server.js -d --config webpack.dev.config.js --content-base public/ --progress --colors

. means look it in current directory.

Answer 3

I found the accepted answer does not work in all scenarios. To ensure it 100% works one must ALSO clear the npm cache. Either directly Goto the cache and clear locks, caches, anonymous-cli-metrics.json; or one can try npm cache clean.

Since the author had cleared the cache before trying the recommended solution its possible that failed to make it part of the pre-requisites.