Changing dist directory in Nestjs

Question

I'm building an API based on Nestjs. The main.ts file is nested in a subfolder of my src directory. As a result, the compiled files are also nested in the dist directory and my entry point is dist/api/main.js instead of dist/main.js. I would like to keep things that way.

When starting my app with npm run start:dev, I get the following error:

4:47:32 PM - Found 0 errors. Watching for file changes.
internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:969
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Cannot find module '/home/ymonb/Nest.js/myProject/dist/main'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:966:17)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:859:27)
    at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (internal/modules/run_main.js:71:12)
    at internal/main/run_main_module.js:17:47 {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: []
}

I need to be able to reconfigure Nest with the new path. I looked into the documentation, but I don't see anything to specify a different entry point.

I think that maybe I need to edit nest-cli.json, but I can't find any documentation about the possible options in this file (if you know of such documentation, i'm interested!).

This is my nest-cli.json:

{
  "collection": "@nestjs/schematics",
  "sourceRoot": "src/api"
}

Any idea?

Answer 1

You can edit nest-cli.json like this:

{
  "collection": "@nestjs/schematics",
  "sourceRoot": "src",
  "entryFile": "your/main/js/path"
}

and nest-cli will load: your/main/js/path.js

I found config in source code. nest-cli/lib/configuration/configuration.ts

Answer 2

Go to your "nest-cli.json" and edit the "entryFile" config.
It should be linked to the main.js file inside the "dist/main" file.
It should look like this :

{
  "collection": "@nestjs/schematics",
  "sourceRoot": "src",
  "entryFile": "copy the relative path of your main.js and paste it here"
}