How does templates directory end up in dist of the create-next-app package?

[stainedatom]

Summary

In the package.json of create-next-app (v15.3.1-canary.6), the scripts are as follows:

"scripts": {
    "dev": "ncc build ./index.ts -w -o dist/",
    "prerelease": "node ../../scripts/rm.mjs dist",
    "release": "ncc build ./index.ts -o ./dist/ --minify --no-cache --no-source-map-register",
    "prepublishOnly": "cd ../../ && turbo run build",
    "build": "pnpm release",
    "lint-fix": "pnpm prettier -w --plugin prettier-plugin-tailwindcss 'templates/*-tw/{ts,js}/{app,pages}/**/*.{js,ts,tsx}'"
  }

The ncc scripts in releasing the package is responsible only for outputting the single JavaScript file in dist and seemingly the only script that involves the templates directory is linting.

But the published package on npm contains the templates directory in its dist:

Owing to which part of the release process did this happen?

Additional information

No response

Example

No response

[icyJoseph]

Hi,

ncc uses this tool, webpack-asset-relocator-loader, which figures out what static files are needed for the output build to function correctly. That's what's copying the files into/from template.

I figured out from here:

• next.js/packages/create-next-app/templates/index.ts

  Lines 68 to 69 in 9db9b6f

  	// README.md is ignored by webpack-asset-relocator-loader used by ncc:
  	// https://github.com/vercel/webpack-asset-relocator-loader/blob/e9308683d47ff507253e37c9bcbb99474603192b/src/asset-relocator.js#L227

So, the README.md files, would be ignored by this tool, that's why they called them README-template.md, so that they are copied into the dist folder, and then when you do execute the create-next-app to scaffold your app, they have to rename them back to README.md...

[stainedatom]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!😃 Now I understand that it is static analysis performed within ncc to copy the necessary assets as is needed by the source.

Kind regards.