Files are removed every build in webpack watch mode even cleanAfterEveryBuildPatterns off

[Linh Nguyen]

Issue description or question

Webpack Config

// List of directories to be cleaned.

// Absolute path to your webpack root folder (paths appended to this)

// Write logs to console.
verbose: true,

// Use boolean "true" to test/emulate delete. (will not remove files).
// Default: false - remove files
dry: false,

cleanOnceBeforeBuildPatterns: ['**\/*'],

protectWebpackAssets: true,

// allow the plugin to clean folders outside of the webpack root.
// Default: false - don't allow clean folder outside of the webpack root
dangerouslyAllowCleanPatternsOutsideProject: true
        

Environment

Run: npx envinfo --system --binaries --npmPackages clean-webpack-plugin,webpack

 System:
    OS: Windows 10
    CPU: (4) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6200U CPU @ 2.30GHz
    Memory: 1.16 GB / 7.90 GB
  Binaries:
    Node: 10.13.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
    npm: 6.10.0 - C:\Users\leoli\AppData\Roaming\npm\npm.CMD

Package.json

"webpack": "^4.35.2"
"clean-webpack-plugin": "^3.0.0"

Everytime when webpack rebuilt the application (because watch mode has been enabled & files had changed), every files were removed.

Expectation:

Files are not removed.

[Chris Blossom]

It looks like this is the configuration you are looking for:

new CleanWebpackPlugin({
    cleanStaleWebpackAssets: false,
}),

[Linh Nguyen]

Thank you, it worked :)