How to copy static files to build directory with Webpack?

You don't need to copy things around, webpack works different than gulp. Webpack is a module bundler and everything you reference in your files will be included. You just need to specify a loader for that.

So if you write:

var myImage = require("./static/myImage.jpg");

Webpack will first try to parse the referenced file as JavaScript (because that's the default). Of course, that will fail. That's why you need to specify a loader for that file type. The file- or url-loader for instance take the referenced file, put it into webpack's output folder (which should be build in your case) and return the hashed url for that file.

var myImage = require("./static/myImage.jpg");
console.log(myImage); // '/build/12as7f9asfasgasg.jpg'

Usually loaders are applied via the webpack config:

// webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
    ...
    module: {
        loaders: [
            { test: /\.(jpe?g|gif|png|svg|woff|ttf|wav|mp3)$/, loader: "file" }
        ]
    }
};

Of course you need to install the file-loader first to make this work.

Requiring assets using the file-loader module is the way webpack is intended to be used (source). However, if you need greater flexibility or want a cleaner interface, you can also copy static files directly using my copy-webpack-plugin (npm, Github). For your static to build example:

const CopyWebpackPlugin = require('copy-webpack-plugin');
 
module.exports = {
    context: path.join(__dirname, 'your-app'),
    plugins: [
        new CopyWebpackPlugin({
            patterns: [
                { from: 'static' }
            ]
        })
    ]
};

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Compatibility note: If you're using an old version of webpack like [email protected], use [email protected]. Otherwise use latest.