tsconfig.json for project with `src` and `tests`

Question

I've got a (desired) structure like this:

- tsconfig.json - src     - app.ts - tests     - appTest.ts     - appTest.js - dist     - app.js 

If there was no tests folder, a tsconfig.json like this would work fine:

{     "compilerOptions": {         "outDir":"dist"     },     "include" :[         "src/**/*.ts"     ] } 

However, if I add tests/**/*.ts to the include element, it also compiles my test files into dist and changes its folder structure (understandably, but undesirably).

Can I tell TypeScript compiler to include test files in the project to support things like refactoring but omit them from output to dist? Specifically, I'd like the .js to be compiled in the tests directory as suggested in the structure above.

Answer 1

You may use rootDirs option within tsconfig.json such as:

{   "compilerOptions": {     "rootDirs": [       "src",       "tests"     ]   } } 

This can be looked up at Typescript documents, on this page (search for Virtual Directories with rootDirs subtitle): Module Resolution