Should I commit css and js generated by laravel mix?

Question

I started using laravel mix, and there's huge files generated by it. Should I commit those to the repo? What are the advantages and cons of both ways?

Answer 1

You should not add anything to the repo that can be generated at any time, for example after pull. A clear well known example that can be added to your predicament, is node_modules. They can always be generated by npm install, therefore it should always be added to .gitignore

Answer 2

Reasons you should commit these files:

1. No need to install node modules bloat on the production server (less security risks);
2. Much faster deployment. Just pull your changes and everything is there;
3. You don't need to keep node/npm versions in sync so compiled scripts are always identical on your machine as on production;

Reason why you should not commit:

1. Less files in version control (nicer diff/log);
2. You don't need to remember to compile scripts for production before deployment;
3. No merging issues (if you work in a team) for the compiled files.

If I'm working alone on a project and don't do very frequent deployments, I'd choose to commit these files.

If you have a decent deployment pipeline which can build these files on-the-fly when you need to deploy, then I would definitely not commit them.